Lucifer
by Bismarck Khan
Summary: It's AU. In this Albus Dumbledore is more proactive. So there is no war & none of the Order of Phoenix members are dead. I tried to maintain the characteristics of the JKR world. It's more of a drama but the final few chapters contain some action. It's a Harry/Hermione story. I see a lot of readers subscribing for the story alert but aren't Reviewing for those - PLzzz plzzzz review
1. The Beginning of a New Era Planning

Chapter 01:- The New Era Begins - The Planning

**Dec 13th, 1983. Potter Mansion – 60Kms to Norwich on the shore of the North Sea, England. Three thirty in the evening**.

It was a pleasant evening, a rare sight, due to the onslaught of the cold winds from the north. But today it was just a cool breeze flowing. The greenery was still there spreading the warmth and comfort of peace. The sun rays were beautiful to watch, without the glare. It is into this scene that we dive - The Garden of the old Mansion was filled with cheers and shouts.

Three Little boys of ages six, three and three were kicking the football, concentration on their little faces as four gentlemen were pretending to fail to snatch the ball away from them. The Game had an audience too. The crowd consisted of an old couple, a elderly gentleman with long beard and whitish-brown hair dropping to his waist and a severe looking woman with a stuffed vulture on her hat. They sat on lounges enjoying the climate and the sight of the playful lot, a pleasant change from their day to day activities in the stuffy rooms with even stuffy and grumpy people. They were making the most of the cheerful atmosphere. But that was not the extent of the watching crowd. The Game also had a couple of cheering women, one pretty face with fiery red hair and a round faced woman with a black plait, jumping up and down as their little players dodged past their opponents.

The eldest of the kids dodged past a man with black hair adorning his youthful and handsome face and made an accurate, and for his age, a stunning pass between another two men, to one of the younger kids with raven hair sticking up, the women cheering raise an octave, appreciating the skillful pass. The kid, but, paid no heed to this as he was sprinting ahead with all the speed his little legs could muster to support his teammates. But the cheering caught the attention of one of the men who had just made a fake little slide to intercept the little pass between the younger kids. He had a wide grin as he got up, running his hand through his windswept black hair making it even more messy. He looked at the cheering women, paying no heed that one of the younger kids was about knock the ball into the net, he gave a little bow towards them acknowledging the cheer directed towards him, Well at least he thought it was towards him. The women responded with a loud boo that prompted a loud gale of laughter among his teammates as he pouted.

"**I am so happy our Lily decided to marry James, Charles. She can deflate his head from time to time, forcing him to walk on land,"** Said one pretty lady, looking at an elder man.

The man smiled and nodded his head agreeing with his wife. **"Indeed Dorea, I am afraid we spoilt him more than necessary. It's good he married a fiery woman to keep his feet down."** The remaining two smiled and nodded their approval of their assessment of the couple.

As the gentlemen laughed over their friend's jilted ego, the younger kid with a round face took advantage of the gentleman keeper's inattentiveness and scored their Fifth goal, sealing their victory in the battle of David vs. Goliath, the Davids triumphing again. The two younger kids spread their arms as if a bird of flight and ran around the ground close to their grandparents soaking in their applause and celebrating their unbreakable record against their dads and uncles. The elder kid however dashed towards the women and jumped into the arms of the fiery head, as she hugged him tight and spun him around as the other woman laughed at their joy. He had a smile that threatened to split his face in two. After a couple of spins she put him down.

"**Lilly Mum, did u see how I passed between Paddy and Uncle Frank? It was this close, and before that how I faked passing to Neville, but passed to Harry instead. It was soooo cool. But the best was how I made the first goal. Uncle Remus couldn't get to it even if he dived. I knew he would look for the ball in the air so I hit it all along the ground. I fooled him right away."** The older kid rattled as the fiery red head- Lily listened with a broad smile sharing a look at her friend Alice.

"**You were very good Blakey. Those were just hairy big men with no brains. You little guys were so smart; you fooled them throughout the match."** Lily said.

"**Yes, Blake. I guess you had plan, didn't you? (Seeing Blake nod vigorously she continued) I knew it I saw you huddle up before the match,"** Alice concurred with her friend.

Hearing the praise, little Blake swelled with pride. After-all he was the leader and he was the mastermind of their strategy. But he was not vain despite his uncle's efforts. He knew he couldn't have done it with his team. So smiling he looked towards them. They like him were soaking in applause, but not from their moms, but from their grandparents.

**Meanwhile, at the Elder's Lounge** -

The two younger kids ran around their grandparents lounges a couple of times celebrating their victory, before coming to stop before their respective grandparents.

Dorea Potter took the grinning little fellow into her arms and kissed both his cheeks as his grin shone his face.

"**My, my little Harry, where did you learn to play like that? Did your dad teach you?"** Charles asked Harry.

"**Naa. I didn't learn it from daddy. Mum says he doesn't know how to play football. Blakey taught me, and he learned it from Grandpa John. Did you see how I fooled daddy into slide? Dad couldn't stop my pass to Neville and Neville scored. They don't know how to play. They didn't even see Neville hit the goal. They are always laughing."** Little Harry explained to his grandfather sincerely.

Dumbledore, who was listening in both conversations, chipped in—"**Yes your father and uncles were not known for their concentration span. They earned quite a few detentions, just ask Prof. Minnie. I hope you both take after Lily."**

Neville was giving his Granny blow by blow commentary of their exploits on the field to which she was paying great responsiveness, exclaiming at all the right points. He also explained their strategy to defeat their opponents.

"…**so you see Blake said before the match that he would fake a shot towards me but pass it Harry, and Harry will pass it to me to score. And we did just that, didn't we Harry?"** Neville said looking towards his partner and harry nodded his head, and both of them looked at their captain, who was looking at them and grinning. At this Harry and Neville squirmed down from the laps of their grannies and rushed towards Blake, laughing. They hit Blake without slowing down, and the three of them tumbled down in group hug cheering their well planned and executed victory.

Once the celebration was done with, it was Harry & Neville's turn to give a detailed account for the benefit of their mothers, ignoring that they were cheering the kids all the way. Lily and Alice just grinned and barred with the detailed sketch. To be truthful this was far better than the Quidditch match analyses of their husbands and friends after watching their team the 'Puddlemere United.' This thought struck them at nearly the same moment. They shared a quick smile and turned to look at the men.

The men with no idea that they had caused amusement for the ladies were in their own world with James surrounded by Remus 'Mooney' Lupin, Frank Longbottom and his best mate, Sirius 'Paddy' Black. They were still teasing James for the brutal reply from lily in response to his self-centeredness.

"**I mean Prongs how did you think they were cheering you? I thought lily cured you of your inflated head before you married."** Sirius jeered him.

James just pretended he didn't hear the comment, while the remaining two laughed heartily. Remus taking pity on James tried to change the topic-

"**So, Prongsie, who taught the boys to play like that? Last I checked they were learning from you and Sirius. And you are hopeless at football, and booed a well- placed goal the first time you watched it with John. I thought he John wouldn't agree his daughter marry an idiot with no knowledge of basic football."**

Sirius and James pouted identically at the slight, while Frank smiled with Remus.

"**We are so much better than you, Mooney."** Sirius slammed back at the same time James replied, **"I thought he scored in his own goal, and I have gotten much better since then."**

"**You still haven't answered James. What are you doing to my son, turning him into some vivid footballer? So that when I want to teach him Quidditch he says 'No thanks, I prefer football'"** Frank drilled.

"**That would be the work of Alice and Lily. They think it's too soon for Quidditch, and they want the kids to be active, playing sports. So they left the kids at John's house all evenings last week. How they learned so much in five days I can't say."** James answered sighing.

"**Speaking of Quidditch, when are you blokes going to get permission from your better halves for us to teach Harry and Neville flying. Ron already knows how to fly. So once we teach both we can have flying matches. I hate running around chasing the ball."** Sirius interrogated. He had been on this path since Harry & Neville's 3rd birthday.

Frank and James exchanged frightened looks. They remembered very distinctly the screaming they got when they took Blake at his 2nd birthday party. James had to sleep on the couch for 2 weeks, while Alice didn't talk with Frank for a week. They didn't want a repeat of that. If Sirius wanted to teach so badly, he could take them up, and suffer the wrath himself. They didn't even want to breach the topic with their loves.

"**Alright, if you are going to be a chicken about it, I will talk with them myself, but remember I talk I teach. No interference, I want to make one of them a beater no matter what."** Sirius Ploughed on stubbornly. James and Frank gave him a pained, wry smile. It was this or no Quidditch till they went to Hogwarts. Better it be Sirius than wait another eight years. So they gave him the nod to go ahead. Sirius grinned victoriously.

"**So, Padfoot what is your strategy for icing the fire? Remember you have to get the permission. What makes you think Lily & Alice will give you a 'thumbs up'?"** Remus rained on his parade.

"**Ha, that's a problem for these idiots. Me? Lils & Ally Love me. I just have to be my charming self, piece of cake. Why are you guys laughing? I am serious."** Sirius pondered as both Frank & James broke out into unbreakable laughing sprout, after a small mirth filled glance at each other.

It was Remus that answered Sirius's question as both his intended targets were rolling on the ground – **"Well Padfoot you better not call Lily lils, She hates when you do that, if you want to charm her into giving you permission. And you also might want to think of a plan B, if in case your *Snort* charm failed you. Me, I think it's advisable to sucker punch them from all directions, and a little bit of help from Dorea and Albus wouldn't hurt."**

"**Remus plan, I concur with. Though, I do want to see the charm of Padfoot, just for entertainment."** Frank giggled.

"**Yeah, if it was for something I don't want so much, I would let Padfoot go ahead. It would make a great story for ages. 'Padfoot & the day he crashed head on into the fire' we could sell so many books. Where are you going Paddy? Come-on we were just joking, you are charming, but I don't think that should be our strategy."** James tried to appease Sirius _(Nobody was allowed to make fun of Padfoot about his charm, he was as sensitive about it as a girl about their beauty)_, as he tried to follow a grumpy Sirius who took off in a huff.

Remus felt a hand on shoulder as he followed his two best mates. He looked to his left to see Frank nodded him to rush so as to stop Sirius from ruining their Plan B in his grumpiness. Remus nodded, and both of them rushed after their objective.

**Back at the Mansion following the excited victors of the match and their cheerleaders…..**

Blake, who was walking backwards and talking through their finest moments with his cousin and friend, reached the door first to turn around. As he did, he saw flame of green flash pit out a red head. He rushed in excited and hugged the boy of 12yrs before he could gain his balance. Luckily he steadied the young boy.

"**Billy we won, we won. 5-0, we thrashed them. Why didn't you come early? How was your school term? Did you learn anything interesting? Please, please, you will tell me, right?" **The young boy, William Weasley, more commonly called as Bill, just smiled down at Blake and answered -

"**Hey Blakey, Yes I did learn some good stories, and I will tell you all today after the movie. And you got to help me mind the crowd; I am going to need to your help."**

Blake swelled at Bill's words. Bill was his hero. During their exchange, the rest of the crew travelling with Bill was spit out of the floo network. The Crowd consisted of the Weasley family along with the Lovegoods, the Diggorys, the Tonks, the Bones, the Abbots, the Davises and the Jordans. All the party members with families came by Floo, while the Singles apparated into the garden.

Within a few short minutes the quite household was filled with a hoard of noisy barbarians. The Girls accumulated around their fun-filled mentor for such evenings, Nymphodora 'Dora' Tonks, while the boys formed age appropriate sub groups, except for Blake as he greeted every girl, giving an extra hug to Ginerva 'Ginny' Weasley, Little sweet Luna Lovegood as he called her and Dora. Luna and Ginny hugged him back hard and invited him for their little tea party, as Dora fished out their tea set from the nearby trunk along with doll & doll houses for the other girls.

Neville, Harry & Ron forming their little unit, were exchanging stories of the earlier football match and Bill's tales of Hogwarts, and eaves dropping on their role models, Roger Davies, Lee Jordon and the twins, Fred and George Weasley huddle close by plotting pranks & mayhem. Percival 'Percy' Weasley was also close by, also earwigging, although for entirely different purpose, to rat them out. Charles 'Charlie' Weasley, along with Bill and Dora were herding the gang into the mundane room equipped with television, radio, video games and music system, their sanctuary.

With a few last minute warning from their mothers, especially from Molly Weasley directed at the twins, the ladies followed the men into the garden.

"**Blake's such a sweet boy",** Maria Lovegood commented, **"Luna just loves him, he is like brother to her, and she looks forward to these meetings."**

Lily smiled nodding, **"Yes, he is, he follows Bill's example. He wants a little sister so he can dote on her like Bill does with Ginny. I hope Harry molds himself on Blake & Bill. But that husband of mine and his gang of pranksters are trying to corrupt Harry, Neville and Ronald, they have given up on Blake. Says I have ruined his fun filled years with my talk of responsibility. But they are bolstered by the path taken by Lee, Roger and the twins. Hope they can influence the young much better than the marauders. I am afraid they are not much wrong; I have seen them follow the twin's gang."**

Molly smiled wryly, **"That's what I need more children like the twins. You know it's become a full time job of mine, watching them. Why, just the other day they were trying to make an unbreakable vow with Ron."** She nodded at the other women's shocked expressions, continuing, **"Luckily Arthur caught them in time. He just went ballistic. I haven't seen him that angry ever. I am lucky Percy and Charlie are responsible like Bill, otherwise I would have my work cut out."**

**MAGICAL UNITY POLITICAL PARTY MEET, GARDEN POTTER MANSION**

Dedalus Diggle was the first of the world crowd to apparate into the garden for the council. Today's Congress was to be important; they were to trap Lily, Maria, Alice and Dorcas Meadows/ Davies to name a few into running for the ruling senate, which would mean more work and less time with the children. Oh the counter argument for their involvement was expected to be for the tales, they thought. Just as Diggle and others exchanged greetings, the garden was filled with a series of cracking sounds as others joined in. Elphias Doge, Edgar Bones, Sturgis Podmore, Cordac Dearborn, Gideon and Fabian Prewitt, Alastor Moody, Benjamin Fenwick and Carl Wintworth, the inner circle of the M.U.P joined the crowd coming from the mansion. A short wide eyed creature with pointy ears appeared into the throng carrying a huge tray of Tea and snacks. The Tray was too big for her. As creature wobbled with tray, Lily rushed forward to help it and admonish it

"**Blinky how many times did I tell you not to overwork yourself? You don't have to bring everything at same time."**

The creature, Blinky, just smiled and replied in a sharp little voice before disappearing as silently as she appeared.

"**Yes Mistress Lily, but it be no trouble. I be alright."**

"**Elves are stubborn little creatures"**, Lily sighed. Dorea Potter smiled dearly, she knew of continuing battle of wills between the Elves and the new Mistress of the House. Coming from a Mundane background and despite her years at Hogwarts, Lily didn't get used to 'slaves' that the Magical world employed. It provided a great deal of entertainment for her (Dorea).

"**Lily-flower, you just need to give them time, you will get them, after all you got to me too and I was much more struck to my ways, didn't you?"** James whispered into Lily's ear, draping an arm on her shoulder. She sighed contently cuddling into her husband.

"**Yew! You guys are nauseating; do you always have to be so cuddly all the time?"** Sirius teased them receiving no less than 4 slaps at the back of his head from surrounding women causing a bout of laughter among the assembled at his expense. Sirius took of course took it with smiley pout, after all it was the plan, Put Lily and Alice in good mood.

"Alright everyone, don't waste Blinky's tea, it's too good", James announced, sipping his cup greedily.

"**Hear, hear," **the men cheered.

After a half an hour's idle chit-chat, Albus Dumbledore, the architect of the party's itineraries stood up clearing his throat loudly drawing attention from the still talking members.

"**As you know the election for ruling Parliament senate start in four months and we have to aim for the clear this time. We need a 70 percent seats on the assembly for any our major laws to architect a better way, and to wipe out the left out pureblooded ideology. And this can be achieved by increasing the witches' approval of our ways and by knocking down the opposition's stronghold, Knockturn alley. **_(Many of the assembled including Lily and Alice opened their mouths to air their thoughts about the improbability of winning in Knockturn alley senate but Dumbledore forestalled them, raising his hand asking them not to obstruct his thought & let him continue) I know it's not easy but we do have a trump card. [Alice and Lily exchanged bewildered looks, who was this trump card and why did their in-laws and husbands know before them?] _

Dumbledore looked at Lily, smiling at her confusion, and continued –

"**It's YOU Lily. I know, I know you are not ready to give up your carrier at St. Mungo's, but you are the hope. Ironically it was what you did while at the job you have to sacrifice that makes you likely to win the Knockturn Seat. You have been going to Knockturn alley on your free time to heal the economically challenged since you began working at the hospital. I was not sure it was a good think for you to go on your own, but funnily I am glad now that you refused auror presence."**

"**Any aurors presence and it would scare away most of the crowd, and it would defeat my purpose for going there."** Lily slapped irately.

Dumbledore raised his hand in a silent apology, **"I know my girl, and it's this selflessness that has gained you quite the fame among the seedy residents of the alley. And they were the one that warned of their less savory neighbours from causing you any harm. These residents have been kicking us to the curbs from the beginning in the elections as they see us as stiff rule abiding rich. But not you, you are the daughter-in-law of a rich snobs,(He smiled apologetically at the other Potters)yet you went into a dangerous place without protection for their benefit against your superiors order. They think you are one of them now."**

"**You are making this up",** Lily accused, "**How would you know, they don't like you there?"**

Dumbledore smiled endearingly, he knew what they thought of him in seedy part of London- 'The Reformer', trying to draw them from out of their family businesses; In most cases involving stealing and selling illegal and banned items, animals and so forth. But he had source among them, loyal to him, a slippery thief he had helped out in the person's family in a dire situation.

"**Yes, I know dear, But I have a friend there.."** But Sirius cut him off, as he remembered an anonymous tip, which was hardly anonymous, on some dangerous crowd plotting an attack on the ministry.

"**Mundugus Fletcher!"**

"**Fletcher? That drunk?"** exclaimed Lily, **"He always hovered around the place I worked from, rabbling off his non-existent symptoms for dragon pox."**

Dumbledore looked apologetic, **"Yes, him, I asked Mundugus to keep an eye out for you, just for our peace of mind. He was of course very willing. I admires' you, for what you were doing for the discards. He was the one that asked me actually, to request you to run from there. He thought you would feel uncomfortable to represent such 'shady' folk to ask directly. Their current senator, Borgin, is not so much liked as bared as he was one of their own. So, many of the patrons of the alley approached Mundugus, as they knew his friendly connections with me, to ask if you were interested to take his place. It's all hush-hush as they don't want Borgin to know. They think that you would provide them with things like medical help, schooling there that they need unlike Borgin who only caters to his line of business. And to help you work well, we plan to allot the Diagon alley place to Madam Malkin. She is very well liked, and was planning to hand her business to her niece, the young Madam Malkin, and retire. You would work together brilliantly, and it could do well with two such brilliant minds. I always thought Rachel would work as some high ranking job at the ministry, but she loved designing and making dresses,**" finished Albus, shrugging.

"**But I ..Harry and Blake….my job.."** Lily stammered, looking pleadingly at her husband and Mother-in-law.

"**I know love, but think of the good you can do for them if you had the funds. And the Diagon and Knockturn alleys are financially rich areas. So you will have more galleons than your pay. Weren't you the one who said 'If only I were Borgin' in one of your rants after one evening"**, James reminded her hugging her.

"**And don't worry about the kids, Molly, Augusta and I came up with an arrangement that the kids will love. There are John and Cameroon too. So the kids will have good time, and we will try not to spoil our grandchildren. We promise"**, Dorea tried to ease her worries and Molly smiled understandingly. Molly knew how hard it was to any mother to leave the children in others care. She was an absolute wreck last year when Bill left for Hogwarts.

"**So you all knew"**, Lily half sobbed, half accused, when something struck her. **"Thank you for that, I would feel much better knowing that the kids will be with you. And I don't mean to be causing any hurt, but what about Alice? Won't she with the babies?"**

Alice, who was consoling her friend, looked up startled. In her effort to comfort Lily she missed that little bit information. She looked at Frank, Augusta and Dumbledore with wide eyes. At their rueful expressions her eyes widened even further.

"**No!"** she exclaimed, **"Why? Lily's inclusion made sense."** She threw a look saying sorry to which Lily nodded understandingly, **"But what about my inclusion?"**

"**Yes dear, but we need independent, brilliant young women to attract more young girls towards the new lifestyle. As you know Magical Britain is mostly Male-Dominated society. It is one of the things we talked even before starting and James had the good taste in young women, marrying you two. Your husbands didn't want you to enter the politics as you loved the jobs you were performing, but change in a society requires some sacrifices from us. Don't worry about the kids, all of them will be together, so they will be busy enough playing all morning to miss you much. I know you two changed your job preference to be on emergency service only and it a major change but you won't be alone. Dorcas, Maria and Andromeda also agreed to run for the ruling senate instead of their husbands"**, Augusta reassured her.

"**Yes it high time we women took on ruling this country. Let's show these men how to do it properly."** Dorcas Davies chipped getting snorts of mirth from her friends, which turned into full blown merriment as all the men reacted with wounded expressions.

And slowly the serious talked tuned down into small chatters about the kids and their antics, as they walked towards the house. After a couple of minutes of this fun filled talk, Sirius poked James & Frank, asking them to dive into the matter they had discussed earlier. Seeing them shake their heads robustly, he rolled his eyes. Ignoring their warning signs he ploughed on obstinately

"**Lils I was wondering"**, he began turning on his charm, he used while picking up women, ignoring the groans from his friends and the glare from Lily, **"As both Harry and Neville are both over three years, when do I get to take them on broom and teach them how to fly."**

Alice who was looking at Lily and smiling at Sirius inability grasp the simple fact to not call Lily 'Lils' tuned around to glare at Sirius too. The men just slammed their hands at their faces at the Hagrid like subtlety of their friend.

"**Never" "Not while I am alive"** Alice and Lily retorted at the same time respectively.

"**What? Why not? I am great flier. Didn't I teach Blake? Look at him now, he is good"**, Sirius enquired, ignoring the slit nostrils steaming with anger at reminding of the day they took two year old Blake on real broom, not even a toy one. The men rushed past Sirius and the ladies to join with Dumbledore and others, leaving him to talk his way out of the pit he dug himself into.

Just as the women were ready to spit out fire, a little bullet shot at Lily hugging her legs.

"**Lily-mum we watched ….just now. It was sooo good. Is paddy talking about my boom learning?"** Not stopping for any confirmation he continued, "**It was sooo much fun. Is he going to teach Harry and Nev? It will be so much fun."**

Lily stammered about how to break the bad news to him.

"**No dear, Paddy won't teach them. He is never serious right? And he may drop them. You don't want that do you?"** Lily managed.

Blake pondered seriously for a moment before nodding in agreement asking, "**Can't Billy teach them? He taught Fred, George and Ron. And he knows how to fly, he got an O on his flying test last summer and he is chaser for Gryffindor."**

Alice and Lily looked at each other wondering how to escape this, when Alice tried…

"**But Bill has to go home now, so may be another time."**

Blake nodded and then said something that stopped their hearts,

"**Yes, but I will ask Aunt Molly if Bill and Charlie can come over tomorrow to teach Harry & Nev. I will help too."** With that he ran out to catch Molly before she flooed home to the Burrow.

After standing shock-still for few moments Alice broke the stunned silence saying, **"Well it's better than letting these clowns teach them. Bill is much more responsible than Sirius and Co."**

Lily agreed nodding, **"I don't have the heart to say no to Blake when he seldom asks for something. And even now, it's for Nev and Harry. And he had the manners to ask Molly before asking Bill, that's more than all the men put together."**

The Women nodded together and left to ask Molly themselves ignoring Sirius's sputtering defense of his fly skills and Manners.


	2. Chapter 2 The Neo Marauders

**A/N :- **Dear Readers, My humble apologies for not mentioning the movie in the previous chapter. I left it blank hoping to research the movie around 1983 that children might like and forgot to update it before posting it and also for any other mistakes (Spelling or grammatical). Please review, even if it is a negative one but please mention why you do not like it, a simple 'you suck' will not help me better it.

Yours Sincerely,

Bismarck Khan

**CHAPTER 02: The Neo-Marauders**

**Date: - December 13****th, ****1983; Place: - Potter Mansion; Time: - While the adults were meeting.**

William 'Bill' Weasley, the eldest son of Molly Prewitt/ Weasley & Arthur Weasley, the Commander-in-chief of the battalion of children, was minding his troops in the living room as Molly Weasley exited from the room, delivering a few warnings and threats towards the twins, Fred and George Weasley, the ring leaders of their little Marauder clones'. His Second in command Charles 'Charlie' Weasley was helping 'call me Nymphadora if you want me to bite you' Tonks with the distribution of dolls among the girls, which consisted of Tracey Davies, Ginerva 'Ginny' Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Michelle Jordon, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott. Ginny and Luna wanted the tea set too, while the older girls were more interested in the doll houses.

Blake revered Bill, and as Bill loved Ginny, Blake developed the same feeling for Luna and Ginny, more Luna than Ginny, as she (Ginny) had brothers while Luna didn't. Luna & Ginny reciprocated his feeling. It was not difficult for the younger girls to adore Blake as he always looked after them and also religiously attended their tea parties. Ronald 'Ron' Weasley, often called 'the Grumbler' by his brothers, out of their mother's sight, was roped in by his friends Harry and Neville. True to his nickname he started croaking about Ginny and how she cried when she fell down running around in the garden, and how it took half an hour to appease her, making them miss the football match, as soon as Neville started to describe their victory on the field, causing giggling fits among his friends. Once the three friends settled down they instigated their favorite sport – Spying on the twins, Lee Jordon and Roger Davies.

The Neo-Marauders knew that the young trio of Harry, Neville and Ron were trying to hear/see what they were doing without trying to be seen, So they started talking gibberish giving the impression to the trio that they were talking in a code, causing them (the trio) to forget all about not been seen and concentrate on listening everything and trying to decipher the code. Percival 'Percy' Weasley, the only responsible child according to him, took their mothers words of watching the trouble makers to the heart and was also spying on them. But he unlike the younger kids knew the difference between secret talk and gibberish, so declared to the trio that they, the twins, were trying to mislead them, the trio, by making them thing that the Neo-Marauders were plotting. As usual the trio did not believe Percy.

"**How would you know Percy? You don't know any code language. You're just a cissy, always complaining to mum", Ronald snarled viciously**

Percy threw his nose in the air snobbishly before retorting

"**I happen to be a SEVEN year old. That's four years older than you, and I unlike you can and like to read. I have read lot of books, and I know what they were talking was not a code. And I am not a 'cissy', I am your chaperone in the absence of Bill and Charlie, and it is my duty to report all your mischief to mum."**

Ron's face turned red at Percy's stab about his reading skills. Ron Weasley hated to read his allotted lesson. Every Weasley before and after him could read at 3yrs. It was an ever aching defect he had. Even Ginny, at 27 months, could read with much more flare than him.

As Ron took a swipe at Percy, Charlie and Bill interfered. Charlie seeing Ron's red face alerted Bill to the possibility of a fight. While Bill was listening, he was busy helping Dora, after Charlie was dragged along with Blake into the four person tea party with Luna & Ginny, and he (Bill) was hoping the argument wouldn't exacerbate to blows. In times like these Bill really wished he wasn't the oldest kid.

"**Ron! Learn to control your anger. He is your elder brother. You should show some respect, and if you feel not being able to read is that hurtful, spend more time with mum to learn instead of running around the backyard. And you Percy", **Bill turned around to give Percy his share of reprimand **"You are older than Ron by 'Four' years, as you like to say. Behave as such. You have to show more maturity than what you had, and not prod Ron in such a hurtful manner."** He then turned around to the four mischief makers who were listening to the reprimand gleefully, **"And you four stop luring Ron and Co. into your nonsense, and if I find you in any sort of mischief tonight I will recommend bathroom scrubbing as punishment for you with your mums, understood? Now everybody, into the Movie room you go." ** Ginny and Luna started clapping, roping Blake in to the applause for Bill, while 'The Four' new Marauders nodded vigorously, led by the twins. Bill was pretty cool about pranks in general, but when he was in a mood like that, you better agree with him, because if not he would go through with his promise. After he had cooled down it was different.

While Ginny and Luna dragged Blake with them towards Bill, to get dibs on the choice of movie, excitedly, remaining crowd kept their distance from Bill, especially the boys, and followed him in a subdued fashion. 'Dora led the girls in an orderly fashion, and seated them around the big 35 inch screen on the far end of room, in a pre-organized pattern. Dora prided herself to be a strict but caring chaperone. It also helped that none of the girls were troublesome, and Blake was always there to entertain the younger duo. Harry led Neville and Ron to the front, passing Bill and the girls claiming the prized seats before anyone else can arrogate them. The twins, Lee and Roger sat on the couch at back, angled away from Bill's throne. Percy sat in front of Bill's chair, the closest one from the twins, to keep an eye on them. Ginny tugged on Bill's shirt, one hand clutching her doll to her chest, to draw his attention. When Bill looked down at his little sister, she smiled in a dazzling cute way that dissolved his frustration from before. He too smiled adoringly, and asked.

"**What is it Princess? Do you want to sit with me?"**

Ginny shook her head slowly, **"Blake and Charlie promised to sit with us and explain, but can I pick the movie?"** she asked cutely.

"**OH you don't want me?"** Bill teased slightly to which she shook her head no and hugged his legs cogently showing she still wanted him and loved him making him smile a little more.

"**It's ok princess, I was just teasing. So what movie do you want to see?"**

"**Blakey said Aunt Lily bought the sketch drawing movie. Can we watch it? Blake said it is very funny."** Ginny replied.

At the puzzled look on Bill's face at 'Sketch drawing', Blake chipped in with an explanation.

"**She means the Daffy Duck cartoon Movie."**

Bill nodded appreciatively and announced a poll for the general acceptance from the remaining viewers.

"**So raise your hands for Daffy Duck Cartoon movie. It's supposed to be a Funny"** Bill paused to look at Blake for his agreement at the 'funny' part, seeing the nod he continued**, "…Movie. It's about a Fantastic Island."**

"**It is sooo funny"** Harry agreed, **"I laughed for the whole hour."**

As both members of the Potter household, that saw the movie, agreed on the fun part about the movie, the girls gave their positive nod. Trying to placate Bill and put him in a happy mood 'The Four' troublemakers gave their thumbs up. It was imperative for them that Bill be appeased. They had a plan and for it to go as they thought and quickly, it was essential to have a unanimous vote. As Bill nodded and was about to get the projector ready Ron thundered his displeasure

"**Wait, what about me? I want to watch the Star Wars thing. Uncle James said it was awesome. And it has gun fighting and light swords in it."** The girls made a face at the last part.

"**But Ron everybody agreed to watch the Daffy Duck movie except for you. I can't play the movie only for you. We can always watch it the next time. You can't always get your own way, Learn to adjust with others and not make a scene every time. Now sit down without any fuss, or next time you can stay with Aunt Muriel."**

Ginny giggled at that, while the twins agreed that Ron should stay with Muriel as they were both grumblers. Ron just huffed and blitzed on to the couch grumbling about Ginny always getting her way while he was accused of trying to get his way for once. Even Harry saying that he (Ron) would enjoy the movie as it was so, so funny didn't cheer him a bit. With everyone in place Bill, with Charlie's help, fed the film onto the projector, while 'Dora dimmed the lights for better movie experience. Blinky brought in bowls of popcorn, Orange & Apple slivers along with Pumpkin Juice.

"**Do any of you have to go to the bathroom? Because the next break is 45 minutes away. No? Alright now before we begin everyone thank Blinky for the snacks." **Everyone shouted their appreciation for the snacks causing Blinky to give a motherly smile. As the Movie began, Blinky quietly slipped from the room.

**THE NEO-MARAUDERS - Mission 'Prank the Marauders' in progress**

Fifteen minutes into the movie everyone was enjoying it. It was very funny for the start. Fred Who took on the duty to watch Bill was satisfied with Bill fascination with the movie. He poked George discreetly and raised his thumb in the universal sign of go ahead. George who was watching Charlie nodded his agreement of the 'GO' sign and turned around to get the 'clear' sign from Lee & Roger. Instead of watching 'Dora and Percy respectively they were watching the movie with open mouths. The twins shared a derisive glance, rolled their eyes and then George poked Lee, who was sitting next to him, so hard that he jumped on Roger alerting him too. Caught of the guard ignoring their jobs they blushed and mouthed sorry. The twins glanced at Percy and Dora, satisfied that they too were enjoying the movies signaled their partners to slowly crawl out of the room.

Once they were all out of the Movie Room, Fred cuffed Lee on the back of his head while George took care of Roger.

"Sorry mate but Blake was right, the movie is funny", Lee Explained.

"That's good for us. If the movie is that funny then they won't miss us in between. And we can answer the marauders back for the little trick they played on us. We will show them that we are the Rulers of Trouble-makers world from now and it is time for them to retire, Muwhahah." Fred laughed, trying to sound like an evil mastermind. The rest of the gang dreamed happily about the outcome of their prank - the marauders on their knees, surrendering themselves to the new kings. That happy thought dispelled any leftover disgruntlement from the minds of the twins and the gang happily made their way to the bathroom to finalize the plans, and heap together their weapons.

With happy faces and dreams of grandeur of their own they piled into the loo. Once they took their positions in their circle, they amassed the arsenal of itching powder, fake cigar smoke bombs, invisible twine and colour changing powders at the Centre. Once Lee took copious notes about their stash, Fred and George took out a rough blue print of 'the Marauder's Den'.

"**Right, listen up. After we leave here, we need a key, and it is hidden on that bookshelf, I don't know where. So we have to find it within five minutes and we can't light any of the candelabras as someone at the meeting might notice it. The key opens the trap door under the carpet in front of the basement door. And after we get down the ladder it's easy. We can make as much noise and no one will hear anything as it is charmed. Then there is the final obstacle, we got to guess the password." **At the downtrodden looks on the faces of their co-conspirators, the twins smiled reassuringly. **"Not a problem. We know that the password changes every week, and we spied on them this Monday and heard Uncle James reminding Padfoot that it was '1976'. So it a go on that."** Fred explained while George spread out the map and was marking the targets with a marker he carried.

"**The problem however is we have only 5 minutes to do any mayhem and we have to be careful to return any things we move or take to their exact places. They would know if we moved any of their things, I don't know how. So five minutes planning, five searching the key two minutes down the trap door and five inside the room. So that gives us an eighteen minute window to return to the movie room in time for the bathroom break, understood?"** George took over after laying down the target and Fred rechecked. Lee and Roger gave them impressed looks. The plan was a good one, almost no chance of getting caught if they were careful. There was enough time for them to get back without getting noticed even if there were any complications. They were going to get back at the marauders and wound their pride in their own fortress without any fear of reprisal, as they (the Marauders) would never tell on them. They saw it as a serious breach of Code of Conduct of the pranksters to report any pranks. Four serious faces that spelled trouble for anyone in their way made their way out of the loo, just in time to see Percy entering the corridor.

**PERCY**

Percy knew that the twins were up to something. He was the official chaperone at home when their mother was busy for about three months and before that as a victim for two years. So he had a basic idea of their calm before storm behaviour. They agreed with their mentor too quickly without causing some mutiny. It was not like they didn't have the opportunity. Ron gave them that at the Movie selection voting. They thrived in chaos, and yet let the prospect of causing some nuisances go without any hassle. It was very unlike them unless they had bigger things to worry. And that meant trouble. So he was keeping an eye, discreetly, on them, checking on them regularly every 2-3 minutes. But after ten minutes of scrutiny, he (Percy) was too involved in the movie; the scene was too funny for abstraction. And in that window of five minutes they slipped through to god knows where. He knew they would never dare to prank Aunt Lily or the elder Potters or the Kids, so kitchen & upstairs were out. That left only James Potter. He didn't know any place Only Uncle James would frequent, and then it struck him - Didn't he hear Aunt Lily complaining to his mother about the room in the basement that Uncle James and the Marauders claimed as a den? So he rushed past the corridor with the loo, and towards the stairs near the basement silently. He ran down the stairs triumphantly only to find nothing except the Potions room for Aunt Lily's healing job. So the den must be hidden. With that thought, and at a loss as to what to do except maybe tell Bill about them, (He wanted to catch them himself) he walked into the hallway only to see the gang walk out of the loo with their 'On Mission' faces.

**Percy, meet the Neo Marauders – 25 minutes to countdown**

Before he could do anything the twins pounced on him and shielded his mouth with hands so that he couldn't call for help and their partners took out some tape to tie up his one escape, his mouth. With his mouth taped off Percy tried hard to escape his captors. Although the hostage was two years older the assailants were too many for any advantage. So, after three minutes of intense but silent struggle resulting in a split lip (George), a brow cut (Roger), the conquering kidnappers had their internee bound and gagged. Not satisfied with their victory the twins urged their mates into hanging Percy by the locking bolt of the loo. Once they successfully hanged Percy by his belt, the twins spent a couple of minutes mocking their captive for always trying to ruin their plans but always failing spectacularly in hushed voices. On Lee's tapping on his wrist indicating that they were wasting the time, the twins rushed to the bookshelf beside the stairs.

**The Plan Continues – 20 minutes to countdown **

The gang divided the shelf into four parts, each allotted one row, to search for the key. The twins had to search the top two rows while Lee and Roger were to search the bottom two. As they could not use the candelabras they had to search each of columns feeling with their hands. The twins carried a nearby table in front of the shelf and got on it. After three minutes of groping in the dark Lee hit the treasure. There was small depression in the wood underneath a plaque on the penultimate row. He let out a small exclamation of victory alerting his partners. He slowly removed the small box from the hole, using only the tip of two fingers fumbling it twice in the process. He guessed it might have been easier if he could have just summoned it. Once the box was relieved of its treasure he placed it beside the plaque to return it once they were done with their objective. Fred and Roger put the desk back in its place while George rolled the carpet away to uncover the trapdoor to allow Lee to open up the hatch. As Lee opened the door with a bit of assistance from George, all four encircled the opening exchanging evil smiles – One step closer to their goal, and they were just three minutes behind their schedule despite losing time with Percy. The Marauders will lament the day they messed with them. Lee went down the ladder first in honour of finding the key before their allotted time. George followed after him with Fred and Roger to tail in that order.

Lee in his hurry to reach to the bottom and into the Marauder Den missed a step resulting in falling face down at the bottom of the ladder. George and Fred let out an amused snort causing Roger, who was in the middle of taking a step down to look at the twins object of amusement causing him to slip too and it caused an avalanche of falling kids. Lee took the brunt of among them breaking George's fall who inter took the burden of Fred and Roger. Roger impacted with Fred and rolling of from the top the pile relatively unharmed. One by one the boys at the bottom got up dusting themselves. Roger helped Fred and George of Lee who was knocked out of his wind. It took him five minutes to gather his bearings in which time Roger was properly admonished by the twins for nearly wrecking the whole plan.

**The Marauder Den - 11 minutes to count down**

When Neil Armstrong walked for the first time on the surface of the moon he was elated but it was minuscule compared to what the four young boys felt as they stepped in the dingy room. The room was cold and pitch dark but strangely warmth spread across the little bodies of the four mischief makers in the making. Fred fished out a match box from his pocket, lighting up the candelabra and warming up the frigid room. They took in the Mecca of trouble makers. In the seat of honour directly across the door was the famous Marauders map displaying Hogwarts in its entirety. Every student, teacher and ghost filling the Old Castle was being shown. To the right of it were Quidditch trophies adorning James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin's names. And below these trophies were photographs of a young James scoring a goal, Frank commanding the goal post, Sirius smacking a bludger so hard that the bat broke in two and the teammates of the Marauders – Sirius laid on the laps of two girls in Gryffindor uniform with Remus, James and Frank with another kid standing. To the left of the map were books from all around the world in different languages around books written by the Marauders themselves. It was a heavenly room, full of their most wanted Christmas presents.

It took them couple of minutes took gather their eyes from all over the den and start up their operation. Fred replaced the cigars with their smoking cigars while George booby-trapped the book shelf to cause the paint packet to fall on anyone trying to approach it. Lee was sprinkling itching powder on the couches and Roger arranging a victory banner, which was arranged to show after the setting off of any of the pranks, with the help of Lee after he (Lee) finished dotting the couches. The New Marauder worked efficiently and everything was arranged in five minutes flat. Checking their watching and grinning in self-satisfaction they skipped out the den. After closing the door, they turned towards the ladder triumphantly without realizing that they were about to encounter a surprise of their own.

**Small Bladders cause Large Troubles – 20 minutes into the countdown (35 minutes since the movie started), Movie room **

Little Luna, as Blake liked to call her, loved pumpkin juice. She could just drink pumpkin juice for her meals if she was allowed to. So when Blinky brought them snacks, she had her honorary brother, Blake, bring her a jug of Pumpkin juice for their couch unknowingly set the dominoes to fall, thwarting the twins master plan . As Ginny didn't like the Juice (how weird?), she monopolized the jug as a result she had to visit the loo ten minute before the allotted break. She made alerted Blake about her problem who in turn notified Bill. So Bill announced an early bathroom break to relief of Neville, who was trying to hold it for five more minutes, and to displeasure of Ron, who despite his earlier grumbling was enjoying the movie very much.

As Bill turned sideways to get up to pause the projector, his eyes fell on the empty couch in which the twins, Lee and Roger were sitting. He knew instantaneously that they were up to some mischief. He asked Blake to take Luna to the loo and 'Dora to assume control while Charlie and he would go after the prankster wanna-bes'. As Charlie and Bill ran for the storeroom that had the stairs for the basement, Bill came to an abrupt stop when he caught something moving from the corner of his eyes. Charlie came to a halt and looked backed to see Bill sporting a sliver of a smile looking at something in the direction of the loo. Curious he back paddled to look at the thing that was causing his brother to smile and resist smiling at the same time. One look at the object of Bill's attention and he gave snort of amusement before he too schooled his face into a neutral expression. Trying not to laugh at their younger brother predicament Bill and Charlie helped him down freeing his hands and ripping of the tape from his mouth causing Percy to moan slightly.

Once free Percy explained his side of the story, where he followed the miscreants and they pounced on him before leaving towards the basement stairs. After making sure that he was ok, Bill and Charlie left towards their intended target, the storage room. The first thing they noticed was the open trapdoor in corner of the room. The open trapdoor answered who the foursome targeted to be pranked. The two brothers exchanged knowing smiles. It was probably a retaliation for chameleon charmed cookies the Marauders gave them, they (Bill and Charlie) thought. Hearing excited murmurs coming from beneath they figured that the traps were set successfully, so they waited for the troublemakers to climb out of the hatch.

**Alas Thwarted –six minutes to the bathroom break**

The four happy faces emerged from the hatch. They locked the entrance before returning the key to its resting place. They were rolling the carpet back in its position taking great care to leave no clues of disturbance behind when they heard two voices cast "Lumos". Surprised they turned around only to be blinded by the sharp lighting spreading throughout the dark store room from tips of two wands. After a few moments their eyes adjusted to the light and they could see the person holding the wands, Bill & Charlie smiling. The postures of the four slumped from edgy to defeated in a second. Bill and Charlie smiled pleasantly at their stances.

"**I know why you had to set the trap for the marauders; it's in retaliation for the prank they pulled on you, right?"** Bills understanding questioning ignited a ray of hope and the foursome presented hopeful expression on their faces seeing which Bill shook his head with a sympathetic smile and **continued "But I can't allow you to prank anyone under my watch. You just have to do better next time. Now chop-chop start the de-pranking and de-booby-trapping the den and there won't be any trouble with your parents.**" Lee and Roger swiftly reopened the hatch and made to the Den where as their partners crawled at the pace of a flobberworm behind them. For next ten minutes Bill and Charlie supervised and in place helped in clean up.

Twenty minutes from Luna's request, Bill and Charlie made their way into the Movie room with the four downtrodden absconders. The occupants were happily playing their games and the movie lay forgotten. Luna, Ginny and Blake were around a small table enjoying their tea party; Tracey, Michelle, Susan and Hannah were playing with their dolls, comparing the different dresses in the small doll closet; 'Dora was sitting next to Ron as Harry, Neville and Ron were painting their drawing books watching vigilantly. Percy was waiting for them and was scowling at his four captors. Bill made the foursome stop in front of the surly form, **"Here's the deal, you four apologise to Percy in the presence of all these witnesses and Percy will not tell on you to your mums. You will."** Bill finished cutting of Percy's displeasure at the deal. **"You don't want to escalate this to full on war, do you? They didn't want to do that, you just happened to be in their way so it was not personal, let it go. And you four get on with it and mean it."** Lee and Roger conveyed their regrets and apologies to Percy, saying that they only wanted to prank the Marauders and not him. Percy nodded his clemency as he knew they did not goad him after tying him up, and they did not want to hang him by the bolt in the first place. That was the decision of the twins. **"Come on guys apologize to him",** prodded Bill as both Fred and George just stared at Percy loathly while he looked on giddily anticipating their humiliation to apologize in front of everyone. "No" they answered after a few moments, **"We won't apologize to him. He deserved it, always snooping around us, trying to get us into trouble and just being a tattletale busybody. No, you can report it to mum about it. We will take any punishment mum hands us but we won't apologize to this prat."** Bill interfered before the squabble got physical, which looking at Percy wouldn't take much, as every other activity stopped to focus on the feud between the twins and Percy. **"Alright if that's what you want, Percy you can't say anything about Lee and Roger as they apologized and nothing about what they were planning, got it?"** Percy huffed in response and went to the nearby shelf to take a small book to read, taking his mind away from the twins taunting. Bill and Charlie just shrugged at the hostility between their brothers. It wasn't this bad before Charlie started at Hogwarts the summer that year.

Ten Minute later it was into this tense atmosphere that the returns adults found themselves. Ginny and Luna ran to their mothers trying to explain the fun they had and Blake ran to meet his Lily-Mum. A few minutes of listening to the kids talk about the movie and the fun they had in general, the adult and youngsters watched in fascination as the Marauder minus Sirius ran in looking like they were chased by a dragon, fear etched on their faces (except for Remus). Remus was walking ten feet behind his friends sombrely shaking his head

"That Sirius doesn't know any tact, how he survived so far in the Auror force is a wonder." James and Frank smiled wryly hoping that only Sirius would take the brunt of their spouses' anger. The senior Potters and Augusta just shook their heads and went into the kitchen to continue their chat wondering silently what fresh trouble Sirius wove for himself. Amelia Bones, Dorcas Davies and Maria Lovegood noticed that both Lily and Alice were not with them.

"He didn't start the 'when are you going to let me take Harry and Neville on the broom?' talk did he?" Maria asked incredulously and the response she got, Remus smiled amusingly and James and Frank just looked up in silent prayer confirmed her fear. And she didn't know whether to be amused or irritated, which was often her reaction to anything involving Sirius. The women just shook their head in disbelief whereas the husbands patted James and Franks backs consolingly and a silence descended. It was into this silence that Blake ran into calling out 'Aunt Molly'. Molly looked towards the incoming bludger.

"Aunt Molly, can Bill and the rest come tomorrow to teach Harry and Neville to fly. Mum and Aunt Alice agreed. Can they? Plz plz" he begged causing an explosive cheer to go out from Harry, Ron and Neville.

"Lily and Alice agreed?" Molly confirmed and seeing the excited kid nod in affirmative she agreed. This caused huge cheer from young trio. Harry and Neville rushed to hug their hero, Blake, for getting the permission from their mums. James and Frank watched all this dumbfounded with their jaws hanging low.

**to be continued…..**

**A/n:- Thanks for reading. And once again I plead, please review**


	3. Chapter 3 The Flying Lesson

A/N:- Before anyone complains I would like to write a disclaimer, which I think is very unnecessary. I, Bismark Khan, the author of this story have never claimed and will ever claim that I own the Harry Potter World.

So on to other rubbish that authors have to write….Please review after you read.

CHAPTER 03 – The Flying Lesson

**December 13****th**** 1983, at the onset of Dawn**

Mildly icy winds were breezing by the Old Mansion, built around the twelve hundreds. There were hints in the climate about the advent of a snowy winter. It was warmer than most winters around the United Kingdom in the past. The cold from the arctic was travelling slowly this time around, giving a breather to the citizens of the union of three countries. The mansion had huge wide open areas that were converted by the owners into anything they preferred. Now it was converted into a Quidditch pitch and a football field to entertain the young brood of Potters. The building was made of solid rock walls, which were now painted over. The lower levels consisted of eight rooms with huge kitchen converted for the needs and convenience of the house elves. The entrance facing the Ocean on its west was followed by a large living room, nearly half the size of the ground floor. The remaining small rooms were used by the residents as their offices. The biggest room was sub-divided into two bureaus for the men, Charles and James for their political campaign planning. The one on the right at the back, contiguous to the kitchen, was closed for over five years and was rarely visited as it had a sad history to it. The room in the left top of the ground floor was the previous office of Dorea Potter in her capacity as the head of International Magical Co-Operation, converted ten years ago into women's central command for when friends of Dorea and then later on Lily visited, as Dorea too shared the space in the party office room. There was a storage room at the left-back end with stairs to the basement where Lily had set up her Potion-brewing stationary, locked away from any annoying company, meaning the Marauders. The Stairs in the living hall adjacent to the massive fireplace and the muggle room lead to the upstairs corridors connecting the bedrooms, they were six in number. In the south – west corner, the largest one, was allotted to the head of the family overseeing the pool, meaning Charles and Dorea Potter. The one in the North east corner was initially the room of the younger couple but now belonged to Blake and Harry, after a hostile takeover about six months ago. It had ocean view from where they could see the ships passing by. The room opposite to the kids' room was bestowed to the younger couple out of the goodness of the kids' hearts. The remaining were guest rooms which were frequently occupied by Remus, Sirius and the Longbottom couple like today. All the room had concomitant bathrooms for convenience. These were issued five years ago after James's first visit to 'the Ambience', the Evans's family home near Barnet.

The Old mansion, including several acres of land around the house, was a gift from Stephen of Blois, the grandson of William I, to Adam Potter, for saving the life of his wife Matilda of Boulogne in 1148 from dacoits, and had seen many tense & restless nights, many celebrations, even hosting a couple of fancy balls in the honour of the dukes of the old land and couple of dozens of marriages, but the excitement in two young three year olds could have easily out stretched the sum of all the above mentioned events. The sound of the waves of the North sea crashing into the cliffs nearby could be sighted as an example to describe the waves of excitement in the young boys ever since they heard Blake, the great Hero, asking permission from Molly Weasley to lend Bill and Charlie to help teach them broomriding, the real stuff not the toy version, which was boring, and not very stimulating. The young progenies were ordered to sleep at eleven p.m. by their mothers after obliging their enthusiasm for 3 hours. Neville and Harry were reluctant but Blake managed to convince them, pointing out that they needed to rest to regain their energy if they were to enjoy flying around.

At about five in the morning (some people, like me, might call it still a night), young Harry woke from squirmy sleep. As he rubbed his somnolent eyes, he slowly gained access to his sentient mind, which alerted him to significance of that morning – He was about to learn how to fly. As that thought struck him, he let out a huge roar, causing his roommates to fall from their beds, efficiently waking both of them in one go. As the fallen kids slowly gained entrée to their mental faculties, they too, not unlike their cotenant, recognised the connotation of the day, and joined Harry in his happy dance, chanting loudly 'We are gonna learn to fly today', and Blake's 'We are gonna fly today'. After running around dancing in the room for about five minutes, they wanted to spread their happiness around to the grownups too. So Neville sprinted into the room his parents retired to and leaped onto the still sleeping couple still chanting. Blake and Harry did the same except for the jump. Blake waited at the door as he was old enough to understand that barging into someone else's room, even your parents was not ideal, that too so early in the morning. But Harry at three was more concerned about spreading his excitement and ran to his parent bed before shouting into his father's ear, jolting James from his blissful dream. Lily just slurred unintelligently, still asleep. But Harry got his intended target to wake up, so he caught his father's arm and started dragging him out of the bed, as a hazy eyed James tried to focus his thoughts from his dream onto the reality, where his son was trying to kidnap him. Harry & Blake waited until Harry had dragged his father down the stairs with the help of Blake to explain to his father the reason for this impromptus chanting. 'We didn't want mum to wake up and cancel the flying lesson because she is grumpy to be awoke this early' they explained causing James to wonder if Sirius could learn some tact from either of these kids. James was still wondering about 'how a three year old could have greater understanding of restraint than an adult' , when he saw the object of his thought being dragged out along with Frank by little Neville, who looked like he was a Sugar and Caffeine related high. Frank was in his third stage of the process of waking up, while Sirius was sleeping standing upright, the blanket still draped around his body, an impossibility according to the muggle medical theories. But Sirius often surprised the experts of the field with his lazy, useless but miraculous habits. He had once slept through a painful intake Skele-Gro, making Madam Pomfrey think he had fainted unconscious due to the pain, until she heard him snore. This caused her to wonder about Sirius, and had her check if he had any other elusive injuries along with the visible ones, when he got his arms and the right leg broken trying on a dangerous manoeuvre on the broom. The rest of the marauders later heard her expressing her astonishment to Professor McGonagall and Madam Hooch. Remus walked in behind Frank and Sirius after a couple of minutes properly dressed, smiling at the enthusiasm of the kids.

After about ten minutes, the adults were fully awake, thanks to the Caffeine flowing through their system provided by Remus, which was much appreciated, and some cold water to their face that was considered mean, also instigated by their buddy. As the caffeine kicked in the big kids joined the young ones while Remus cast silencing charms, blocking any noise piercing upstairs towards the bedrooms disturbing the people still enjoying their sleep. After about half an hour of running around Harry wanted to know how it feels and topic of 'how to fly' and 'what technic to use' discussion began, with even Blake throwing in his two Knuts.

Sirius was a fan of Chenkovo grip style while Frank and James should firmly by the traditional English style of Mattie-Freeman style, made popular by Matthew Cannon and Raven Freeman in the 1800's. This started the war between the traditionalists and the reformists' with neither side giving the other any breather arguing heatedly while the younger generation watched with their mouths open turning their heads from Frank & James to Sirius. Ten minutes of this to & fro conversation came to the point of

"**..to break your speed. The Mattie-Freeman style is for sissies who liked to fly around at the speed of Flobberworms. Any real professional would recommend the revolutionary Chenkovo style. The Old style is for brooms of the yesteryear not top of the chart ones we use now." **Sirius argued as James retorted, **"Let me think, who was the most effective chaser that had the record for the most number of goals? That's right me not the great Chenkovo gripper Sirius Black. But not to worry Sirius you do hold a record, that of breaking most bones in the body, courtesy of your 'Revolutionary and Modern" Chenkovo grip." **

"**Not to mention the Kids are learning to fly today and need to go slow and it has been a proven method, tried and tested, for generations**", Frank supported James to which Sirius had to concede defeat, causing the other two to celebrate their victory through a series of intricate high fives. As James and Frank gloated over Sirius about their victory, he snubbed them by shooting out **"I only agreed with Frank about the kids not needing the top end speed today, not about your method of gripping the broom being superior to mine"** which ended the celebrations, and was about to start another bout of arguments if Remus didn't intervene with his annotations "**Kids just follow whatever Bill says, alright. Don't listen to these bozos, these styles are for when you want to play Quidditch, and for that everyone as their unique aberration to the two methods, and is also a long way away if your mom's view of Quidditch is interpreted correctly."** Remus turned around from the nodding kids, who agreed that it was probably the best thing to do, only to find his friends glaring at him. Once the children went into the muggle room to cool of their excitement with a stint of cartoons, James & Co fell on Remus with intensity of angry Dragon

"**How can you say that Mooney, 'Take the advice of a kid who had just got into the Quidditch team as opposed to that of three former Quidditch heroes?' It blasphemous is what it is."** Sirius exclaimed while James and Frank nodded their agreement. Remus continued into the kitchen without paying any heed to this and started piling eggs, bread, bacon and flour to start making breakfast. After a couple more minutes of shocked disbelief, the others started helping him still shooting him indignant glances of betrayal from time to time. Fifteen minutes later the smell of freshly cooked breakfast journeyed upstairs, rousing the sleeping beauties much more effectively than the racket made by the excited children.

**Breakfast at 7 with Darth Vader **

Lily and Alice made their way to the muggle room following the delicious aroma of the breakfast. The kids were devouring the pancakes, Bacon and toast watching their favourite Jedi battle the evil Darth Vader. The mother greeted their kids with kisses on their cheeks and received a half-hearted 'good morning, mum'**. **They ensuedto their husbands, greeting them too with a kiss before stealing their food. James and Frank grumbled good-naturedly before declining to the kitchen to get themselves new bacon filled plates. Once the kids successfully returned the Jedi to power, Alice and Lily lectured them of the Do's and Don'ts's when they were flying,

"**The No.1 rule is that you don't listen to any of the advices given by your dads or Uncle Sirius. You can follow Remus's advice but not the other's. Not after what they thought what they did with Blake as 'FUN'."** James and Frank hung their heads in shame as their wives reminded them of their folly of listening to Sirius and ignoring Remus suggestion of not doing it.

**FLASH BACK – June 7****th**** 1979, Blake's Second Birthday**

"James I don't think Lily would like what you are planning to do, you too Frank. You are married men living with your wives for over a year, and yet you are letting Sirius lead you on into a sure trouble with your spouses", Remus warned them as Sirius, Frank and James were slipping by without being seen into the ground with broomsticks, after cleverly kidnapping Blake from Lily, who was busy taking advice from Dorea, Augusta, Molly and Dorcas about rising a child.

**Ten Minutes ago**

"My twins are one year old and I already have Dejavu feeling that they will turn out like my brothers. It was mistake to name them after my brothers, as they feel obligated to lend their hand in raising them to live up to their names" Molly complained causing the others to laugh as they all looked at Fabian and Gideon make faces at the boys making them giggle. It was into this scene that James dropped in

"Lily dear, let me take little Blake with me, come here little buddy we can play touch me not with Uncle Frank and Uncle Sirius."

"James, I'm warning you only running around and no funny business or else I will ground you for a year, got it?" Lily reminded him of their deal, to which James smiled and nodded.

Once they were clear of any reporting authorities, Sirius slowly sneaked into broom closet smuggling the racing brooms out into the Kitchen where Frank and James were waiting as a concerned Remus was advising his married friends against following Sirius plan.

**Unauthorised Flying**

After listening to Remus warning James and Frank for about five minutes and observing that they were about listen to him, Sirius tried to reassure them and rebuke Remus at the same time.

"**Come on Mooney, it's just a little bit of harmless fun. Lils and Alice know we love flying and they won't mind that we took them flying. Besides we are certified flyers with hours of Quidditch experience under our cloaks."**

Seeing James and Frank nod, Remus put his hands in the air exhibiting his disbelief and frustration, **"I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Prongs I can't believe you following Mr Irresponsible, and you too Hunter (Franks nickname for his Eagle animagus). Don't you know your wives at all? I can see the future, Lily and Alice banning you from teaching any of your kids in the future, and now you sleeping on couch for about a month or a year depending on what you do when they find out."**

Seeing the thoroughly cowed expressions, Sirius again assured them

"**Come on guys, Remus is trying to scare you. He is just being Mr Goody Goody two Shoes. Now are you coming with us or not Mooney?** "At Remus's glare, he continued, **"Your loss Mooney, let's go Blake, let me show you and the losers the Chenkovo style." **

After two minutes of flying with Sirius, James wanted his Nephew to fly with him, to show Blake the Mattie-Freeman style, so he landed and asked Sirius to get down & relinquish his possession of the Kid.

"**Ha Ha Prongs, don't be an idiot there is no need for me to get down we can pass him in the air. Besides Blake might get cranky if land now as he is enjoying the flight"**, Sirius countered.

"**James Please don't do this, it one thing to fly but to pass the kid while in the air is dangerous", **Remus pleaded. And James and Frank were about to agree when Sirius threw in his prized argument.

"**Come on Prongs, when have you ever dropped anything in the air. We didn't even drop a Quaffle, How would we drop a child? Remus you are insulting James and Frank's chaser skills, and don't be kill joy Blakey is having fun, aren't you Blakey?"** To which the two year replied with a giggles and big smile. Seeing that, and persuaded by the argument Sirius made about their flying skills, they were about to rocket up, but before they did they turned to Remus to assure him, as he made good point.

"**Mooney we will be safe and there is no chance in hell that we will let Blake fall, Lily and Alice know how good we are on the broom so they won't be mad."**

But Remus was not convinced. He had a better idea of how the ladies will interpret these actions. He was their study partner since he was thirteen long before Frank and James decide to date and later marry Alice and Lily respectively.

"**I am not sure about that Prongs. One – you didn't ask them if it was OK. Two – you are endangering a child, no"** he interrupted, **"it doesn't matter if you're the wind god himself, they will view it as one. But I can see you have made up your minds, I Just hope they do not find out about this session, so the least you can do is get back in 10minutes tops. I can't tell on you, as you are my friends, but they might not appreciate my loyalty in this matter. And I would prefer them not be mad at me, even if it is to not tell on you to them."** James and Frank nodded their answer to his request. It was very reasonable one to not grant it to him. But the fate decided otherwise. Bill and Charlie came to Lily asking her where Blake was, as they wanted to play with the Birthday boy. Lily's reply had them run into kitchen only to see him flying along with Uncles James, Sirius and Frank, so they ran back in requesting their father to go home and bring their Brooms so they can join the others.

"**What? They took them flying?"** Lily thundered seeing Bill and Charlie's frightened face she mellowed her voice assuring that she wasn't mad at them and continued softly**, "Where is Uncle Remus?" **to which they replied that he was sitting on the ground, with his head in hands. That was all Lily and Alice needed. So Remus had warned them not to take the kid up and yet they did. And not only that, they were doing something much more dense and dangerous. Both the women rushed out into the kitchen just in time to see James passing on a giggling Blake MIDAIR onto Frank's Broom like some kind of sack of Potatoes, with no regards about his safety.

They walked out into the garden with a stone face and stood glaring at the fliers with their hands on their hips. They smiled thinly at Remus, who stood with his head bent in shame, absolving him of any major crime, merely not reporting on his idiot friends with them. Only their concern for Blake and the thought of not upsetting a laughing Blake made them not to launch into the idiots, haranguing them. But once they had Blinky take a happy smiling Blake back into the safety of the house all bets were off. The resulting dressing-down was the worst anyone had ever heard or experienced, and the worst part was no one, not even the Prewitt twins, Fabian and Gideon who were known for their mischief, showed them any sympathy. As it was not enough Dorea and Augusta continued the admonishment from where Lily and Alice left.

**BACK TO THE PRESENT- 1983**

James missed the guideline lecture as he was reminiscing that fateful day. He had grown by leaps and bounds since that day in the matters of love and marriage. So when Sirius complained, **"Mate, there were about ten DON'TS excluding banning us from the flying lessons. It's simply outrageous. I am going to talk to Lils." **James stopped him **"I don't blame her Paddy. After what we did last time, I am glad we are only banned to teach them and not to fly with after they learned to fly on their own."** A shocked Sirius tried to exchange an incredulous look with Frank, he was further stunned, to find Frank nodding his solemnly agreeing with James. Remus smiled kindly at his two married friends thinking '**Better late than Never'** and hoped that Sirius would find someone who could transform the man-child into a mature adult diverting his thought to Aurora Sinistra, his girlfriend and the astronomy teacher. He was just happy that a smart and independent woman chose him, despite his ailment. He had to thank Lily and Alice for that. Between Lily's skill as a Healer and researcher and Alice's penchant for Herbology, especially the field of medical herbs, they had managed to bring lycanthropy into the subset of a curable/manageable disease. This made it easy for other werewolves to maintain a job as they had medical leave as part of the job package. And as Remus was on friendly terms with the Potter family and more importantly a friend of the Alice and Lily, their saviours, he became the Defacto head of the werewolf clan in the United Kingdom and Europe, stealing the position from the crazed maniac Fenrir Greyback, who had a lust for blood.

The flash of green from the fireplace brought the each man back from contemplations - Remus about his good fortune of form in a friendship bond with James, Lily and Alice all those years ago, Sirius from the shock filled thoughts from his ban from teaching flying by the unreasonable Lily and Alice and James & Frank from the ghost of their past errors, just in time to see Harry and Neville tackling Bill down in their enthusiasm while Blake thanked Molly again for letting the Weasley kids come, before being hugged by 'little' Luna and Ginny who had their toy broomsticks in their hands. The Jordan kids were next followed by the Davies, 'Dora Tonks, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott.

After detangling from bill and greeting all the Weasley brothers, Ginny was still with Blake and Luna, Harry and Neville turned towards their mother with puppy dog eyes, asking for permission to go flying. Lily and Alice however had some work to finish as they wanted to tie up all the loose ends before resigning their jobs and asked the kids to play some football until they finished their work and were available to supervise the flying session. This caused some groaning from the youngest three boys and for Molly to collect the brooms from her brood and locking them up in the closet. Any more grumbling from Ron was cut short as Luna and Ginny also surrendered their toy broomsticks to Lily, despite the fact that they were not asked to.

" **Ohh sweetie, its ok. You can keep them.**" Lily asked kneeling before Ginny and hugging her. But both Ginny and Luna gave her their brooms saying that they wanted fly along with Bill and Blake effectively silencing Ron, Harry and Neville. They knew that if they were to make any of their displeasure known, their mothers would berate them giving Ginny and Luna as examples. And to a three year old no greater shame could more than their mothers reprimanding them to learn from the younger ones. So they followed Bill, after acquiring a promise from their mums, to not make them wait for more than an hour.

Once everybody pilled into the ground, they divide d the group into two teams, with Bill and Charlie as the captains of each team. Remus was acting as the match referee, while Sirius, James and Frank were the commentators. Bill won the toss and started the team forming process. He went first electing 'Dora which was followed by Charlie with Rogers. The process went until everyone was picked. Percy Weasley, Michelle Jordan, Tracey Davie and Hannah Abbott chose not to play becoming the spectators.

The First match was a tie as Blake, the Goalkeeper, being assisted brilliantly (Nobody wanted to tackle the two year olds) by Ginny and Luna pulled of a brilliant saves restricting the opposition. Sirius, James and Frank entertained the spectators, referee and the players all alike with their funny commentating skill, which were the inspiration later on for Lee Jordan to become the official commentator at Hogwarts, and much later at Puddlemere United home pitch. After the first match Ginny and Luna were too tired to play and were substituted by Michelle Jordan after being teased by her brother about her being too weak to play. She answered his taunting by scoring two goals against her brother's teams that were instrumental in their victory. This resulted in Jordan's teammates blaming him for their loss, goading Michelle into playing brilliantly to extract revenge on him. She (Michelle) retired after the match, joining her friends Hannah and Tracey as audiences. The uneven team caused Charlie to pecker his brother, Percy, into playing for them. A Disgruntled Percy, not interested in playing, cost the team the match, losing it by a mere one goal difference.

The Teams played three matches of 15minutes each when they spied Alice, Molly and Lily returning with their broomsticks, which brought a huge cheer from the young football players. The enthusiastic kids emptied their hands of the Brooms with record breaking haste. Lily and Alice now free of any brooms made way to their husbands and Sirius warning them not to interfere with Bill's teaching or fly along the kids until the kids received their pass grade from Bill. However, they asked Remus to fly along with them keeping an eye on the kids when they were in the air, Much to Sirius's astonishment. They ignored his outrage as they made their way to Molly around whom Ginny and Luna were revolving. As the young fliers gathered around Bill and Charlie, they made an accurate ersatz of Madam Hooch, the instructor for flying lesson at Hogwarts.

"**What are you waiting for? Now form in two lines everyone, come now, quickly."** As they corrected the grips of everyone, including Ron, who had boasted that he knew how to fly to Neville and Harry, causing them to snicker. This caused Ron to declare that he knew how to fly and did not need any further instructions. The reply of **"Alas you are not ready yet, Young Padawan"** from Bill caused further tittering at Ron's expense. After correcting the grip holds of the newbie's they instructed them to slowly kick off from the ground floating about five feet in the air. Half an hour later, Bill and Charlie gave the green light, approved by Remus and the fun began. The fliers enjoyed chasing each other in air, never above 15 feet, a rule installed by their mothers. Not even Fred and George were foolish enough to break the rule with their mothers watching them like Hawkes. Furthermore, Lily had charmed the garden so that a gong would go out if anyone ventured out the restricted area. Blake flew 2 feet above the ground with Ginny and Luna before Bill and Charlie gave them a ride along with them, of course with Molly's permission.

The gang only came down from the air once for Lunch that to, only after Molly threatened to ground everyone from flying again. There was one hour break after the lunch, as Lily, the healer, said that it was not advisable to fly after lunch. This break was promptly converted into a movie break, with Ron getting the opportunity to watch Return of the Jedi. This was again followed by a flying session that ended at seven in the evening. Overall it was a productive day that left everyone happy, even Sirius was not happy to be banned to teach the kids flying as everyone passed their flying test to Lily and Alice's acceptance levels. After dinner the kids were permitted to make the night a sleepover. James and Frank with help from Sirius and Remus erected a tent each, one for the boys and the other for the girls in the garden. Luna and Ginny however, were not interested in the sleepover and went home with Molly much to Blake's disappointment, even though he understood that they were much too young to spend the night away from their mothers. The Marauders spent an hour with kids telling them horror stories that were enjoyed by some while the rest complained about it to Lily and Alice, who kicked them out from the tents.

**A/N: - Hope You enjoyed the chapter. Keep reading and keep reviewing.**


	4. Chapter 4 Christmas Eve

CHAPTER 04 – Christmas Eve

A/n Thankyou Bma925 for your review i appreciate it very much and i will try keep upto your expectations.

**December 24****th****, Christmas Eve 1983 – the Evans Family Residence near Barnet**

A man with girth as much as he was tall on the Sofa sat in front of the Television. The Sofa-Cushion sank so low that the spring made severe sound, probably of discomfort. Lily Potter was making her way from the kitchen along with her mother witnessed the incident and heard the squeak made by the couch. Lily leaned into her mother her lips close to her mother's ears before whispering.

"**I bet the cushion said 'Get off me you fat Cretin'." **

Cameroon Evans swatted her younger daughter playfully, giggling at Lily's comment. She, like her husband, was shocked when an excited Petunia came home one day along with Vernon Dursley, his ring to her adorning her finger introducing him as her fiancé. John, her husband, was dead set against her even dating the human Walrus, but she had insisted that he not make his opinion open, and let her make her own mistakes. She had thought that the relation wouldn't last beyond six months. John's face looked like he had swallowed a bitter pill then, as he gave her his permission to date him. She was twenty one at the time. Two years later when she came in thrilled as Vernon proposed her they did not know what to say, and before they could blink, they were married and they couldn't say anything anymore, except accept the Hippo into their family. Since then he had been the butt end of many jokes curtsey of Lily and John. Cameroon tried to look on the positive side, Petunia was happy and they had a son together, but once father and the daughter were together, they were unstoppable, and the jokes flowed wine in an Irish wedding. Cameroon tried to change the topic on to the other Son-in-Law, James Potter, wiry, athletic and sharp as a knight's sword, enquiring about his 'fantastic cooking skills'.

"**So honey, are you sure James knows what he is doing in the kitchen. John, in the early days of our marriage, thought that he had gift of making a splendid roast beef that his mother loved every time he made. It was a disaster, and he blamed the new kitchen crockery, I brought along, were responsible for throwing of his rhythm. He has never volunteered to cook again."** The mother daughter shared a laugh at the expense of John Evans.

Lily, still giggling about her father's boasts, confirmed James claims

"**No mother James isn't like father in this regard, but talk to him about his fantastic snow man making skills, he is like father there. But regarding culinary skills, he is actually quite good. Dorea says that he was gifted since he was kid and the time he spent with Blinky only nurtured them. I think she tries to drive away the guilty feeling of not being with him when he was a child behind with 'naturally gifted tale'. He isn't that gifted, but he is much better than anyone in the house, except Blinky. Shepard's Pie is his speciality."**

"**So, what now? Your husband kicked us out of the kitchen, Vernon's in front of the Tele, Petunia is taking her nap, and John is out with kids having the annual snowball fight." **Cameroon wondered.

Lily was nervous. She knew that her father was uneasy about her marrying into a Political Family. "It's not safe pumpkin", he whined, "The political families have many enemies. It's an occupational hazard. You will be in indirect danger and always have to lead life wary of reports shadowing you everywhere you go. And later on, at one point or another you have to enter into the mud." Cameroon's smile turned into worry on looking into her daughters face as she was reminiscing something unpleasant. Her mother clearing her throat loudly brought Lily out of her unpleasant thought chain, where after telling her father about her involvement he was so shocked he nearly had an heart attack. Mind has the nastiest habit of exasperating the nervousness of person with horrible visions. Seeing her mother looking slightly worried Lily tried to assure her that it was not that serious but was serious enough.

"You have to be the one to tell dad about it, O.K?" Lily asked and she stalled her mother by continuing, "It's not anything like we are in trouble or so. It's just something that dad predicted, you know when he tried to make me revaluate my choice in my spouse." At this Cameroon smiled with relief. Here she was worrying about something of much serious nature, but it turned out much simpler. But Lily was not looking at her mother to see her facial expressions. She, Lily, thought she wanted to finish it now that she had begun the topic.

"You know about the health clinic I volunteer in that shady neighbourhood near Diagon alley that father was upset about. Well it so happened that they want me to run for the senate from their zone, and Albus and Charles said that it would give us much boost if we were to win in the opposition's stronghold and they were also thinking of introducing many women into the running anyway. So they want me to represent Our party there and you what father thinks of politics…."

Lily looked at her mother at this point into her smiling face, which confused her until

"They already told you? Who?" She demanded. Cameroon laughed gently. Her, no, no, not hers, John's daughter would always be worried about her father opinions not matter how old she got. She was always his little tigress, fighting with him but at the same time gelling together against any fights/debates or arguments with Petunia or Cameroon, herself.

"Well, are you going to tell me who told you about it? I think I remember Dorea saying that they would have daddy and your help too raising Harry and Blake. So, spill out mother." Lily ordered tapping her foot, bringing back many memories of the young red head to her mother. Seeing her mother still with a far off look she clapped in her face effectively bring her mother into the present conversation.

Cameroon huffed, before scolding her daughter.

"Lily Marie how many times have I said not to do that? You have no measurable amount of patience; how that boy, James, deals with you I do not know. Don't glare missy, your glares are ineffective against me, I raised you remember. Now back to your question, Dorea and Charles came to us the next day the proposal came from your 'devotees'. It seems James knew about your father's trepidation about you marrying into the Political family and later on they 'dragging you into the mud'. So they came to your father explaining everything. But they didn't have to, your father was so proud I thought his head would swell, and he would float away. He laughed about how you thought it was his serious concern, after coming back from his trip in the air, floating. You have to understand dear, he would have made some deleterious comments about anyone you decided to marry. You were his little girl, and he didn't want you to marry until you were 40 at the least." This explanation had Lily leak water from her eyes. She tried to wipe out the evidence of her emotion undetected as mother ruffled her hair lovingly. Just in time James announced that the Chief has finished cooking his specialities.

**Ambience 9 a.m.-**

It was snowing slightly that morning in Central England. North of London was the a borough of Barnet, a suburb built in twelfth century ten miles from Charing Cross and sixty miles from the Barnet were Chiltern hills and near the base of one of them was a Italianate styled house, home of the Evans since the mid 1800's. The house was designed after the famous Osborne House, which had sparkled the Italianate style of architecture in England, as an anniversary gift for the home's first woman, Amber Evans the great, great Grandmother of John Evans, Lily's father and the current owner on February 3rd 1859 by her husband Edwards Evans. The house was named 'Ambience' after Amber, Edwards's one and only love. It had an extensive garden, as Amber had a gift with earth that was transmitted through the Evans family, adjacent to a small lake. Primarily built as a farming estate, it was modified and rebuilt to suit the current owners, who were both prestigious lawyers now retired. The garage held two Fords, one for each of the two permanent residents and an ….. that of Vernon Dursley. The huge open spaces in front of the house were converted into Football and Cricket grounds as soon as John found out that his daughters were pregnant. John built them himself and it was one of the reasons he retired early at age of 50. He was a very proud grandparent of not only Harry, Lily's child and Dudley, Petunia's child but also Blake, Lily's Nephew.

The ground in front of the house was covered with snow, and through the snowfall one could see vaguely the outlines of four people, one adult and three kids. The three kids were attacking the adult relentlessly. The adult, John Evans, thought that he was fortunate that the kids were too small and had too little a power to inflict so real damage with their onslaught of snowballs. Cameroon Evans, John's wife always accused him of building the ground so as to bribe any of his grandsons into developing interest in sports, like him. He wanted them, especially Blake and Harry, hooked on the mundane sports before Lily permitted James to teach them flying. He didn't want to lose his grandchildren to the wonders of magical world completely, so he coached them in Football now, and planned on introducing Cricket later on. Last winter his wife berated him for bringing in his friend, Benjamin Mueller the coach of the Football team of the Barnet Special Talents Primary School, who entertained the kids with tales about his days as the mid-fielder of Barnet Football team, for his underhanded plan. She thought he, John, was trying to force Football on to the kids, as if John scoffed, recalling the tongue-lashing from his wife. A snow ball to his head brought him out into the present situation. Harry and Dudley were giggling uncontrollably while Blake was shouting out 'I got you Grandpa'.

As John avoided standstill giving his attackers more of a challenge, he could help but notice that Dudley was panting much more than either Harry or Blake. John's face contorted as he thought it was mostly due to the Fat bastard's Genes. He never wanted his daughters to get married so early, 'Tunia more than Lily. At least Lily chose an active Youngman with a penchant in sports, be that be in that Wizarding one. But his elder daughter's choice even now gave him a nasty headache. He didn't want her daughter to date that fat Hippo much less marry him, but his wife warned him not to interfere in her choice lest it drive her away from them. Grudgingly he acknowledged his wife's point, hoping that Petunia would divorce the Walrus soon. But now after six years and a son it looked like he was here to stay. Even though he hated Vernon Dursley from his pudgy face to his fat toes and Dudley was Xerox copy of his father, John loved Dudley and promised himself that he would flush the Dursley family traits, of heavy intake of carbs and minimum physical activity, out of his grandson. The genetic component Vernon passed over to Dudley was only half the reason john hated him. He, John, knew that if not for the money and the reputation the Evans had Vernon would even be courteous towards them. John also hated the sucking up 'Tuny's husband did to both him and His wife. Dursley family motto, if you looked at both Marge and Vernon, looked like 'Grow fat, Suck up to people in the higher social standing and Bully the ones beneath them.' James on the other hand was quite opposite. He hated to attend the Social Parties his family had to attend, and handed out help to anyone less fortunate. John laughed as remembered James seeking sanctuary at 'the Ambience' before a major politics Ball, where according to James everyone smiled as if they had stick in their bottoms, before Lily dragged him away admonishing him for his childish antics. He liked the boy (James), Of course after the initial gloomy period between the engagement and the first two months of marriage, where he blamed James for taking away his little Tigress.

As Lily and Petunia arrived the night before, John was treated to the tales of the awesome and talented Footballers tales of their slaughter of the Marauders and the fun they had flying around on the broomsticks from Blake and Harry along with the minute by minute description, with special effects, of the recently released Star Wars Movie they had watched, while Dudley's stories consisted of only of the tales of Television shows he loved. Vernon it seemed was intent on making Dudley his clone, Fat, Dumb and Useless. Petunia loved the boy too much and could never say no, which was not very healthy combination. John would be damned if he were to let 'Tuny's boy follow his father's footsteps. No, he had to light a fire in the boy's belly regarding outdoor sports. The next thing on John's to do list was the construction of Jungle gym in the ground. As petunia and Dudley stayed with them every summer and during the holiday season, he would have ample opportunity to implement his plan regarding Dudley.

Just as Harry, Dudley and Blake surrounded him and were about bury him in snow, Lily called them for lunch. John sighed in relief and the three kids groaned in disappointment. As they entered the lobby Lily's sweet yet admonishing voice entered his ears.

"**Must you always insist on taking them into the snow father? All of you can catch cold and you're not as young as used to be. You have to take care of your health.**" John smiled lovingly at his daughter and embraced her **"Well I have a daughter who's a magical Doctor, so I have no qualms about my health."** She hugged him back, tears in her eyes.

"**What is darling? Why tears in your eyes?"** John enquired concerned. To which she just shook are head and replied, **"I love you dad." **John's concern melted as he replied in kind, before asking **"Ahh so what embarrassing information did my wife give you about your dad?"**

"**How is that every time the Father and Daughter get together I am the one you blame? Doesn't matter, I am here as James is waiting for you lot and has refused to let us eat until everyone is there. So put you Father, Daughter bonding on the back burner, and let's go eat."** Cameroon interrupted the pair. Hearing that James had cooked, Blake and Harry ran in eagerly. Lily charmed the duo, to dry and warm them, behind their backs before repeating it with Dudley and John.

Seeing the twosome run in expectation in their eyes, Cameroon observed **"So James is good. The kids seem to be thrilled that he cooked." **Lily laughed and corrected **"No Mother, they are not excited because of his culinary skills; it's because of the show he puts on before he introduces each item." **

"**What Show?"** both her parents asked, to which she just smiled and mimed her lips zipped.

"**Alright let's not keep him and the kids waiting. James, bring on the show."** John announced as he entered the dining room.

**THE JAMES POTTER CULINARY SHOW BEGINS – 11.30 **

James Potter rubbed his hands gleefully as Harry and Blake cheered him on. John shared excited glance with Dudley whereas Cameroon and Lily rolled their eyes in exasperation. Vernon looked disgruntled. In his opinion men who cook were pansies. Petunia was jealous, she was always jealous of Lily. Lily had pretty red hair where as hers were plain & dull blond hair. She thought she won the battle when she married Vernon, assistant director of the Grunnings Drill company, But Lily one upped her by marrying James, son of Charles Xavier Potter, Minster of magic of the United Kingdom. Not only that, he was wiry athletic, supportive and worshipped Lily.

"**So to begin the show we have Bisque, thick creamy with pureed crustaceans soup, a speciality of our lovely neighbours, the French."** As he curtsied, the bowls of soup glided into the dining room through a mist, and to add more enigma, small blue sparks flew out of the bowls once they soared in front of everyone, landing softly.

Lily seeing the distressed look on Vernon at the liberal use of magic, tried to warn James.

"**Love, I think you can skip the theatrics today."** James mowed, and gave a pleading kicked puppy look, that caused further envy to Petunia, but before Lily tried to hint James at Vernon's discomfort, her father interjected.

"**Oh let him do the show pumpkin, the kids love it."** He said pointing uselessly towards the cheering kids, who stopped to give Lily the same look. "**Besides its fun for us too, we hardly see this kind of magic**." Bolstered by his Father-in-law's words, James maturely stuck his tongue at Lily, before continuing his show.

"**Real mature James."** Lily scolded amidst giggles from Harry and Dudley, while Cameroon comforted Lily placing her hand on her daughters shoulder, silently delivering her the message, conveying that men were genetically programmed to be stupid more often than advisable.

"**So after we 'appetized' ourselves with the delicious French soup, we move on to the"** He paused for dramatic effect, which was answered by John and kids through leaning forward in anticipation. **"Scottish Smoked Salmon with Cream Cheese and Lemon Juice"** **for honour of my lovely mother in law, Lily said you love it.**" John glared at him playfully as Cameroon blew him a kiss. The kids expecting a few more multi-coloured sparks however were disappointed.

"**Along with the Smoking hot (James winked suggestively at Cameroon and Lily) Salmon We have, for Pork lovers"**, he titled his head to acknowledging Vernon,** "We have totally English, 'Pigs in Blanket Pork and Sausage rolls for Christmas trimmings', and also 'Turkey with Gravy and Artisanal Brown Bread', for the Traditional food lovers." **John and Lily clapped while Petunia granted as small tight smile."

Now he spun towards the kids, who were disappointed at the lack of any special effects during the presentation, he lowered his voice and theatrically paused, before disappearing. A moment later a disembodied voice whispered

"**For the lovely kids who love the dessert more than the actual meal, your talented chef presents a delicious treat filled with Bananas, lip-smacking cream, mouth-watering Toffee with delectable 'Dulce De Leche' and sprinkled liberally with Biscuits and Butter, the Banoffee Pie." ** As each ingredient was mentioned the children shared happy gazes, wetting their lips in anticipation and when with shouting out the name of the Pastry, James appeared in front of the three eager audiences with the Pie, they clapped with gusto, cheering James for the show and also for his choice of dessert. John and Cameroon clapped along with the children, to which James responded with a deep bow and a greeting of 'Bon Appetite'.

"**Hmmm yummy"**, John exclaimed for the benefit of the kids, who giggled in response, as he tasted the Turkey, gravy and Bread combo, **"You have a real talent son. This is absolutely delicious."** Vernon agreed, stuffing his face with Bacon. He turned towards his wife, and asked "**What about your Smoked Salmon, Grace."** [Lily's mother's name is Cameroon Grace Smith/Evans] Cameroon just continued eating without even acknowledging her husband's question, but swatted his fork away as he tried to steal some of her fish. Lily just smiled at her dad as he started to plead for some fish from his wife, who was impassive and belligerent. Lily blew James a kiss, exultant that she had such a loving husband that her parents approved him without any reservations. Petunia saw James's blissful expression and turned to look at her husband, who was stuffing his mouth with the bacon. That officially killed any appetite she had.

**Tea Time - 4'O Clock, Christmas Eve, Ambience - the Lounge**

After the stupendous lunch the kids took a nap. With belly full of the delicious pie, they were asleep before their heads hit the pillow. The grown-ups occupied the couches around the Tele and just surfed through the channels idly. For about a half an hour none of them did anything except groan heavily, with the exception of Petunia.

"**James dear boy, I think you just killed me. I am so full I can hardly breathe."** Cameroon complained while John and Vernon nodded mutely. James too couldn't answer but he did smile sleepily. After some more of these comments from Cameroon and John, the topic of discussion became 'Lily's political entrance'.

"**So James Potter I allowed you to marry my little fiery tigress and you let her become so popular they wanted her to be their leader."** John complained playfully but the proud look he gave his daughter turned her red with embarrassment. **"Oh dad, can't you just forget it? "** Lily looked at the others **"any other topic please."** She protested. Cameroon smiled **"Honey, your father was floating around the next two days after Dorea and Charles told him that. He would be telling this story for the rest of his life. Be grateful that you're in the magical world and he can't tell it to his Golf buddies. And speaking about that,**" she spun around to face James, mock glaring him, **"I have a bone to pick with you young man. When you married my daughter, you promised to protect her and yet I heard that you let her go into such dodgy place all by herself."** Both John and Cameroon glared teasingly at James as Lily rolled her eyes at her parents while Petunia scowled, who smiled "**You know your 'tigress' very well, once she decides something you better not get In her way or else she will maul you. We used call her 'Fiery McGonagall' at school."** Lily just and huffed and said, **"I am here too. Don't talk about me like I am not."** Her parents and husband just laughed.

After an hour of chit chat mostly spent teasing Lily, reminiscing her childhood activities Blake interrupted them. **"Lily-Mum it's my study hour and today it is math's turn."** James just groaned loudly and carped to his mother-in-law, **"Never before has a Potter been sooo excited about studying until your daughter corrupted the Potter tradition. She had him so addicted to the study hour that even if she forgot, which she seldom does, my Nephew reminds her. And while we are talking about corruption"**, he spun around to face John, complaining. "**John you must stop coaching the kids Football. They are huddling together, scheming beforehand, they are faking a pass and most importantly, destroying us"**. This had his father-in-law smiling big.

While James was whining, Lily called Harry, who was still in front of the Tele, to complete his assigned lesson reading. Not to be left behind Vernon to called Dudley and had him colour the picture book (Dudley hadn't started reading). As Blake listened to Lily completely focused, Cameroon and John were stunned at what their daughter was teaching the Six Year old. Astonished they looked at each other, the expressions adorning their faces, comically, same. James saw the astonished faces of his in-laws and explained **"I think my dearest wife wants to have Blake complete his masters in mathematics by the time he is ready for Hogwarts." **Hearing James, the Dursleys, who were proudly watching their little tyke colour the cow pinkish violet, turned around only to be shocked to notice Lily teaching Year Seven (Sixth grade in USA) Mathematics to six year old**. "She started teaching him Sciences and Math when he was four, and he took an instant liking to Math. And Lily seeing his interest was enthusiastic in her response.**" James's painful description caught his wife's attention and she retorted **"Charles and Dorea have their masters in Arithmancy. It seems the Genes of Maths skips a generation"**, and went back to teaching her Nephew. James exchanged smiles with her parents. His wife was a Fiery one. Once Lily explained the theory behind the lesson Blake, with his tongue protruding out between his pressed lips, concentrated on solving the questions mentioned in the exercise.

As soon Lily turned her attention away from her coaching session her parents fired questions at her without giving her any time to answer.

"**How far along is he?"**

"**What else did you teach him?"**

"**Are you sure he understands the properties of Circles & Polygons?" **

"**Did you teach him any Algebra?"**

Lily just raised her eyebrows at her parents and both of them, slightly embarrassed, stopped asking and let her answer.

"**As James said I started teaching him since he was four. I began with numbers and other standard stuff. I caught on early that he was somewhat gifted in Mathematics. So I ditched my lesson plans and slightly increased the pace, and he absorbed them like a sponge does water. So I jumped a couple of gears. He is not just gifted, he is prodigy. And he loves it. You can't get anything across him when he is in his zone."** She looked at him; he was sprawled over his textbook and notebook, pencil in his mouth, as he tried to solve a particularly difficult problem. She turned back to her parents **"Right now he is at the level equivalent to First and Second year of the Secondary School. He has complete grasp of division of Fractions and Decimals. I introduced Exponents slightly. He comprehends Pre-Algebra and little Algebra I, Ratios, percentages and proportions. I have started him on Geometry recently."** Cameroon just stared wide-eyed, speechless while John had an idea. **"Why don't you join him in Martin's Gifted Education Programme (G.E.P)?"** At her husband's suggestion, Cameroon snapped out of her stupor excited, **"Yes, yes, Callum Martin runs a very prized establishment in Barnet for brilliant young minds. Your Cousin Dylan mentioned it when he was here last summer. Some neighbour's kid, talented in drawing skills, was joined there. The teachers there are trained for such young talents. It has 9.3 rating on British Education Rating Score."** Seeing Lily and James uncertain faces, John added **"It will be good for Blake. Talk with Charles and Dorea and tell us your decision, I will talk with management and he can stay spend the rest of the day with us until you collect him in the evening. As it is we are bored, now that we have retired early and it will enjoyable having kid with us daily**." Lily and James nodded their head contemplatively, and the topic changed from Blake to Harry, who finished his reading assignment and started to colour his own drawing book, and Dudley, and their painting of sharp colours on anything marginally dull.


	5. Chapter 5 Birds of a Feather

**Chapter 5- A Morsel of the Past**

**A/N **Vizi i hope the last chapter was more to your liking and thanks once again for your encouragement

**March 1****st**** 1944, Willow Hamlet – a small Village among the CHEVIOT HILLS**

The Cheviot Hills are a range of rolling hills spanning the Muggle England-Scotland Border. The range consisted of five major valleys. What the non magicals don't know is that these valleys are the host to most magical herbs in the entire Europe. So, about three miles from the bank of River Coquet adjoining to Mount Cheviot, simple known as the Cheviot, is the small village of Willow Hamlet. This small hamlet had been a host to researchers in magical potions since its discovery in 836 A.D by Edgar Smartmouth. In order to not vanquish all the resources available in the valley the British Ministry of Magic declared the Valley as Protected land and granted permission to only ten Wizards and Witches, the top most in their fields, to live there. These ten Witches and Wizards alone are permitted in the valley, and they couldn't even invite any visiting family. It was and still is considered the most guarded secret rivalling that of the Magical Mysteries Departmental laboratories. Each of the permitted people is allotted Ministerial Cottages, and right now only seven of them were inhabited. One was empty as a couple were among the ten privileged scholars and one was on a tour around the globe in search of other rare herbs. The occupant of the third Cottage was the only one among the Scholars who was academics and was mostly away at the School; the rest of them were mostly research oriented and only their published books were connected to the academic field. However his absence now was not due to academic reason, though the educational year was in progress. He was away on a mission, which was both important and painful to his heart. He had been in Bulgaria for about five months tracking down his former best friend. The resident of Willow Hamlet kept avoiding the issue for over a year until he could no more keep hearing the lives lost in the war his ex-love initiated with initial spark provide by him. After five months of him chasing the Leader of the civil war, one Gellert Grindelwald, The Hamlet resident caught up to him, and in a battle described by its viewers as both amazing and terrifying the Willow dweller defeated Grindelwald and imprisoned him in Gellert's own prison at Nurmengard. Gellert's ex-friend, our Willow denizen, couldn't kill him but he did not want Gellert's followers to find him, so he had the Fidelius Charm cast on to the prison with himself as the secret keeper.

It was with a heavy heart that the last resident of Willow Hamlet made his way to his Cottage from the apparition point. He was tall wiry young man, the youngest ever to be permitted to live there, and had black hair that fell to his waist and a lengthy beard to match it. His long, brisk strides directed him towards two cottages in the corner, the closest to the forest. He was about to enter the Chalet when his neighbours, the only couple in the Hamlet, who were on their way into the forest, satchels on their shoulders to collect herbs, saw him.

"**Albus"** the women called at the wiry, long haired young man. The young man raised his head and on seeing the couple, forced a smile onto his face, greeted them.

"**Perenelle, Nicolas, pleasant evening, isn't it?"** Seeing the satchels the young man, Albus, continued, "**I see you're on your way to collect more herbs. Don't let me keep you."** With that he tried to escape into his abode. **"Albus Dumbledore! Stop there young man. Come here, don't you know it's rude to walk away from someone while they are talking?"** Perenelle scolded, while husband gently laid an arm on her shoulder in an effort to calm her. **"We know you're hurting Albus and take it from me, it's better to talk about it than burry it deep inside",** Nicolas calmly advised Albus. They, Nicolas and Perenelle, though of six hundred years of age, were childless, and treated their young friend and Alchemy partner as one of their own. To show such promise at such a young age was pretty rare, and they saw may be one or two wizards of his calibre in their long life. And it pained them to see him isolating himself in such a hurtful situation.

Albus Dumbledore turned around slowly to face Perenelle, his head still bent. She slowly lifted his head, to see tears flowing down his cheeks that he had tried to keep at bay. She gently wiped the tears with her hand before pulling the tall young man into a hug. The hug broke his barriers down, and a low sob turned into a full on bawl. Perenelle simply let Albus cry his pain out as Nicolas directed them into their home. Once they were in, Nicolas went inside and came back with a hot cup of tea, mildly laced with a dreamless sleeping potion. As Albus pulled out of the hug, wiping his face to eliminate any sign of his lack of poise, she pushed the tea cup, which her husband provided her with, into Albus's hand, **"Drink up, a hot cup of tea is good for the soul, it warms you from within."** Albus obeyed, sniffling slightly. As soon as he finished his tea and placed the cup on the table he felt sleepy. Being an expert potion master himself he understood what his friends did and offered them a painful but sleepy smile. After Albus fell asleep on the couch, Nicolas elevated him slowly onto their bed as his wife covered the sleeping Albus with a blanket. "**He will out for the night, dear. Let's go and collect our herbs. There's nothing we can do for him until he wakes up." **Perenelle sighed and nodded. "**The duel with Gellert opened up old wounds. The dear boy's bleeding again; emotional wounds have the tendency to open long after the incident."** Nicolas put his arm around his wife's shoulder and she put her head on his chest seeking comfort, and hoped that it would be long time, if ever, before Albus had to deal with this again. With one final look at their sleeping friend they exited the room in search of the herbs they were planning to find.

**Dawn March 2****nd , ****Willow Hamlet, The Flamel Cottage**

Albus Dumbledore, hailed hero in Central Europe, woke up feeling refreshed. He stretched yawning taking in the familiar yet strange surroundings, and it struck him what had happened yesterday. With that touching memory of his friends also brought with it all the painful ones. He had hoped that he wouldn't remember the heart wrenching day that Gellert and he parted ways when he faced his friend turned enemy. That was what Gellert was, a Frienemy. But the minute his eyes landed on Gellert, their final confrontation and more importantly what it cost him, came flashing back. His little angel, who with one smile could make all his frustration, anger and spite disappear, died. Albus thought that no matter whose curse killed her, he was responsible for her death. That one incident caused him grief of Armageddon proportions. With one slash he lost his darling sister, his brother, who refused to talk to him, not that Albus blamed him and also his Friend. He wished and wished that the Gods grant him one more chance at relive it again so that he could right his wrongs. But the Gods were not moved by the grief of one wizard. At Arianna's funeral Aberforth didn't want him to attend, but Albus couldn't do that no matter how much he didn't deserve to be there. That was the last Aberforth spoke with him,, if you can call swearing at him and cursing Albus as such. He, Albus, could hardly blame his brother. All these thoughts made Albus cry again. A heart wrenching sob escaped his body, bringing with it the concerned face of Perenelle and Nicolas. It was like replay of the previous days actions as Perenelle drew the sobbing Albus into his arms.

**March 2****nd****, 4'O clock, Top of Mount Cheviot- 815 metres above sea level **

Nicolas and Albus took a hike onto the top of Mount Cheviot to clear Albus mind. It took Albus all morning to gain any semblance of control over his emotions. He had cried on & off till eleven in the morning, when he fell asleep again tired. He woke after a couple of hours of fitful sleep and forced himself back to shadow of his previous self, albeit less tearful. Perenelle and Nicolas tried to take his mind of the past by regaling him with tales of their progress. It worked to an extent, which was the most they had hoped for. After couple of hours this, the Flamel couple saw the anguish return behind Albus stern expression as he tried reel the grief. Nicolas proposed and Perenelle seconded that Albus and he take a trek up the Mountain. Hoping that physical exertion would help him Albus agreed. On their hike Nicolas engaged Albus in idle chit chat about the pleasant weather and the nesting schedule of a couple of birds they saw on their way. Eventually the topic got to the deplorable condition of the average wizard in Bulgaria and Romania.

"**I swear Nicolas, the livelihood of the victims is appalling to say the least, and that used to be one of the most economically and morally stable societies of the magical world, if not the best. Now it would be a humongous task, a complete task uphill to rebuild it, Even if Germany and France were only mildly affected, it will take at least five to ten years to get back on their horses. And I can't help but feel slightly responsible for their plight. Even though I didn't raise my wand against them, Gellert surely used some of arguments to gain power", **Albus guiltily exclaimed.

"**Listen to me Albus, as an unique person having lived through quite a few such wars I have this titbit for you- As long as humans lived on this earth, they have been fighting. It's one of the most natural things and we have almost perfected it, not just us magicals, but muggles have also witnessed a fair share of wars and quite a few more of battles. And I don't think a simple idea or argument can make a person bad or good. In this epic battle of nature vs. nurture, nature wins a few duels while nurture claws back with a few. But one think is true ages ago and it stands true even now, we as society or species have to learn from our ancestors. And I would bet all my six hundred years, and I think Perenelle would do the same, that you, Albus, have learnt your lesson, at a great expense no doubt. But the important thing is you have learnt from your mistake, and let's hope our British Magical Society learns from the mistakes of our neighbours"**, Nicolas expounded to his young partner and apprentice.

**Dumbledore's Cottage, In solace, the night of March 2****nd**

The night was a clean cloudless one. Being in the forest away from any pollution amplified the beauty of the moon and the stars shining in the dark sky. The lone figure of Albus Dumbledore was sitting in an easychair, tilting to and fro, thinking hard. He was surrounded by book shelves adorning each wall of the living room of his abode. The roof that showed the clear skies was charmed to reflect the outer sky, a charm he had invented by a happy accident. On the wall behind him the shelf was devoid of any books. In their place was a tasteful portrait; the portrait of his sister, Arianna. The kitchen was small one, constructed towards the right of the stairs leading to the basement, where his Alchemy lab was located. To the left was the Bedroom that contained more books, here mostly of his own writing. Overall the Cottage was comfortable for a single young man, spreading warmth throughout the resident, mostly due to the lit fireplace and also by the homely decoration.

But Albus was feeling anything but warm and pleasant. From the moment Nicolas mentioned about it, Albus had been pondering about it. How can he try to stop from such a pitiful state falling on his fellow English Wizards and Witches, and by default the muggles? He was but a measly teacher with barely any political clout or any economic means to gain some. Sure his exploits in Central Europe will win him some fame and reward neither of which would help him in this quest. The British Magical Society was full of bigotry against Muggle-borns, other magical creature and even women. It had social conditions ripe for any maniac to pluck the fruit & serve his own needs, whatever they might be. The mainland European nations had learnt their lesson, the hard way, but learnt anyway. The common disdain among the Wizards about the need to live their lives in secrecy, from what they perceived to be lesser beings, was exploited by Gellert. And now the governments of those nations were trying to negate such feeling. It also helped them that the muggle society was also in the process of rebuilding after their war. Sadly though, the British Magical community, that is the pureblood bigots that held power, disqualified any niggles the populace had by claiming that the war was result of a maniac trying to play God and improve a world of which they, The British Wizards, had little interest in. He needed someone from a family with pronounced political power and also abundant with an enigmatic personality. But in the meantime, he had to try to achieve the Wizengamot seat reserved for the genius of the age, with ground-breaking new discoveries with the assistance and experience of Nicolas and Perenelle. Little did Albus know that in the following academic year the Gods would gift him with not one but two young men with not only powerful political ties, but also unwavering conviction and of similar beliefs.

**June 3****rd,**** 1944, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by the Black Lake**

Hogwarts, a word, a name, a place which became a second Home, sometimes the only home, of every Wizard or Witch in the United kingdom. As the only source of Quality Education, it held the unique record of being the only place everyone in the nation stayed. So All the major leaders of the Wizengamot and their kids were its students and it reaped benefits from this. Any amount of funds, for its upkeep, was granted with minimum of fuss. Though it was constructed in the vicinity of Cairn Gorm mountain peak, its location was closely guarded because of its rivalry with Beauxboutons, the French school and Durmstrang, its German counterpart. The school was adjacent to Hogsmeade or should it be the other way around? But the most prominent spot on the School premises happened to be the great Black Lake, Home to the friendly giant Squid, Alcuescar- named after the area it originated from. Student came down to the lake, after a day of hard work concentrating in classes and completing homework, to unwind. Two such young men were lounging on the grass under the massive Yew tree, rumoured to be planted by the Founders of Hogwarts themselves.

Charles Damian Potter, heir to the Potter fortune and heritage, was so deep in thought that he didn't even notice the girl, Dorea Black, his dream girl, checking him out. He was tall, well over 6 feet, broad shouldered and had windswept hair. His companion was also tall, much taller than Charles, but had a lanky frame with a round bubbly face. He too was thinking hard. He was one of the two friends Albus Dumbledore would acquire, later on, to stand the British Magical world on its head, with the other being Charles. He was Aaron Leo Longbottom, while his best mate, since their diaper days, was the serious one, always brooding he was the fun filled on; Charles was always this serious but recently it seemed to Aaron that he, Charles, forgot how to have fun so he tried to drag his friend into fun filled activities. They made a good team and were the heart throbs of Hogwarts girls. But right at that moment he too was a seriously thinking about their favourite Professor's speech.

When Albus Dumbledore age 19, was appointed at Hogwarts he established a record of being the youngest Professor ever at the School since it was built. He was wise beyond his years (Due to the Arianna incident) and was very intelligent. But the aspect that caught every student's attention and made him an instant favourite was his willingness to help everyone. Well what is so impressive one might wonder about a teacher helping his student? But he would pick out the students problem before even the student recognized it and had infinite patience, very odd for a young man of his age. It was years later they knew the reason behind his patience. Charles and Aaron were firsties when Albus Dumbledore started his career, and in the passing years they became enthralled by his personality. So when he came back from his victory, every student wanted to hear the first person tale, what the historians were saying, an epic battle. What the student expected was Dumbledore giving a description of the spell his opponent used and how he countered them. Instead Albus sobered them up with the tales of horror and plight of the average Wizard to just survive and the horrific image of helpless muggle causalities. He had explained the ideology responsible for festering a madman's dream into a full-scale war between two factions, one for dominance and other for survival.

Albus hoped, as he began the tale, that with him mentioning the horrors of the war and social environment that led to it, he could at least plant a few seeds of the notions for the necessity of the change in their opinion on others who were often looked down and yet used to maintain their wealth, like the Goblins, House-Elves and Muggle-borns. But what happened was the tales of horror gave quite few students nightmare the parents berated him for sharing such horrific details with children. Perhaps he, Albus, was wrong. If the older and much wiser men and women didn't get what he tried to say at the Ball where he had to deliver a speech what chance did these young children have. But he had made an impact, not in these two young men, but also quite a few old souls. These boys and girls would later form the core of his movement for change in the ruling class. But these two young boys/men were more important, in the sense that they had the political clout and the platform from where they could let other hear their voices.

The first time Charles and Aaron heard about the war (the Prophet didn't mention the war as it never fully touched British lives) was when they were playing the game of secretly listening in on their fathers old crowd's conference room, which they were forbidden to enter, as the talks were about things they had little comprehension about. The reason behind their ban might have been valid but telling a teen they were not allowed somewhere especially someone such as 'the terrible duo' was perhaps in hindsight not an advisable thing for their fathers to do. So on one such Sunday morning meeting two years ago, Aaron and Charles were listening in on their meeting plastered to the small secret chamber attached to the stuffy boring conference room. Mostly though the topics of conversations were boring, but on that day they heard something that would interest them.

**July 21****st**** , 1942, Longbottom Manor, Near Ipswich, Suffolk County**

"So Ewan, your boy seems to be doing well at Hogwarts. I had a conversation with Headmaster Dippet recently, and he was singing praises about your son. He told me that he was thinking of making him the Prefect." A plum, bubbly voice announced. The boys in the chamber giggled, if only Proff. Dippet knew of the trouble the duo made. Charles father probably thought the same as he replied **"Well that Armando has never been a wise man, look at his wife; a dragon of a women, breathes fire every time she talks if what Eliza says is even mildly true. My son and my little nephew are thick as thieves, the both of them, always plotting some mischief or other. I wouldn't be surprised if they found some way to sneak in to listen us old folks talk. Ashton you shouldn't have said that they weren't old enough to sit with us."**

"**No father, you shouldn't have"** Aaron agreed with his uncle, causing Charles to giggle a little loudly. Aaron slapped his hand on his friend's mouth. They held their breath, fearful that they were caught, but as Ewan Potter continued they sighed in relief.

'**Well back to you, Thomas, about Dippet, maybe I should be proud that they managed to not get caught."** Both Ewan Potter and his Brother in law/best friend Ashton Longbottom laughed out loud, and the other joined them. It was well known in the Potter circles that Charles and Aaron were very mischievous. After few minutes of chit-chat the topic of conversation again drifted back to Hogwarts, this time towards another Professor. **"My daughter Anna can't stop talking about Dumbledore, Its kind off sweet. He being young, brilliant and handsome had her crush after him**", a voice that the duo could recognize, neither did they know anyone with a daughter Anna. Must be a new member, the pair decided.

"**That youngman is very talented", **Charles heard his father say, **"Why my son and Nephew have replaced Harley with him as their favourite Professor, despite Harley teaching their favourite subject of Arithmancy." **

"**I heard he will be granted a stay at Willow Hamlet**" Surprised exclamations were heard all around at Ashton's declaration, which had him agreeing **"Yes I know. Came as a surprise to me too, offering him a place there at the young age of 24. Nicolas and Perenelle both requested his assistance with their work. He, it seems is not only gifted at Transfiguration but also in Alchemy. The Flamels and Dumbledore, I later found out, were corresponding for over three years. It is an honour for our nation that such young talent is one of our own."**

After Longbottom senior's interesting news Taylor Williams offered them his **"I heard that the Germans and the French are requesting his assistance to deal with that Gellert fellow." **

"**Yes, it looks like a war is inevitable in the mainland; I just hope it doesn't spill onto our lands."** Everybody agreed with Kian Bradley, the Minister of Magic of Britain, loudly with 'Cheers'.

Since that day the teens had kept an ear out for any news about the war. They owled their cousins in Germany and France to forward any news about the war to them.

**Back to June 3****rd****, 1944, Black Lake Hogwarts**

After Professor Albus Dumbledore had the talk with the students Charles and Aaron were more intrigued about the war. They got hold of the propaganda papers of Gellert's, they studied them and the conclusion they came was that the propaganda was big hit. The pamphlets were expertly written. They took advantage of the superiority complex rampant in the wizarding world. And the truly horrific thing was those same condition were blooming and breeding in their Magical Society. From the time they spent observing their peers it was apparent that the attitude was born among them here at their second home. The purebloods, including themselves, never made any attempt to learn of their muggle neighbours society and lifestyle from their classmates who were muggleborn. The ingrained curiosity of the child to know about anything they don't know was somehow not applicable for this one topic. It was one forbidden aspect of their inquisitiveness. The importance of the Muggleborns or the lack thereof was never discussed but reading between the lines the consensus that was beneath everyone's mind was apparent – any time spent on learning about the Muggles and their life was a huge waste of time and only wackos tried to study about them. It was not just pureblood bigots but also muggleborn supporters like their fathers didn't know a Knut about them. It was as if the Magical community wanted the muggleborns to just abandon the life, they lived for a decade, completely. When Professor Dumbledore spoke at the ministry he cited at depth about the necessary actions they, as a community, have to embrace to avoid the same fate. But without any war to push their buttons and any evidence affirming Dumbledore's claims it was just another fearful person's paranoia, not worthy of notice.

"**So Charles, any ideas, because I have a Flobberworms burrowing in my head. I don't have any clue how to proceed with this issue. Remember the important thing is that we have to start small." **Aaron's monologue was just that. His Cousin and Friend was silent. Not getting any response he turned around to see Charles scrunched up face he bolted on to his feet.** "Blimey Charles have you got an idea. Come on Charles I know that face reminding me of a Dragon laying an egg, you have got one now. Share it, perhaps I can develop it. I am going nutters thinking in circles here."** After a couple of moments Charles came out from his thinking plane, **"Aaron, I have an idea but I don't know anyone that can solve it. You try for a while I take a bath and start anew."** Aaron huffed in frustration at his cousin and remarked sarcastically, "**Why thank you Charles, for finally noticing me and an additional gratitude from your humble servant for your confidence that I could solve it."** Charles spun around and looked at his cousin, confusion written all over his face **"Who stole your Broomstick and stuck it in your bottom? Anyhow, back to my idea – Right now we have the introduction to Magic class for the benefit of all the Muggleborns, right?"** Aaron nodded muddled, not knowing where his cousin was going with this question though the question was a rhetorical one. **"Well I thought wouldn't it be nice if we had a similar class with introductions to the Muggle world. We can also buy a muggle Hotel in London, I mean between the fortune we got on our coming of age, we can easily afford a good one, and we can have a I don't know two weeks off during the Easter holidays or sometime else. But the problem is we can't ask any Muggles to come and teach because of the enchantments on the Castle, and any Purebloods or Halfbloods were utterly useless if they want to teach about Muggles. The Muggleborns are all fighting the World War. So that is a dead end." **Aaron fell silent, it was a good idea but like Charles mentioned there was the issue of a good teacher. He followed Charles to their Dormitory, both the young men pondering over the issue.

**September 5****th****, Headmaster Dippet's Office, Hogwarts**

Gryffindor Head of the House, Albus Dumbledore, was wondering as he made his way to the Headmaster's office. The term had started just couple of days ago and the surprises kept on piling. The new academic year started with a bang four days ago. After about nearly ten years of almost no Muggleborns, (Only a few attended Hogwarts) there was an outbreak of Muggleborns. For the first time in the thousand years Hogwarts has stood there was never an influx of muggleborn of this proportion. Generally around two hundred first years attend Hogwarts among the thousand or so children of the British Magical community, among which twenty can be considered Pureblooded and about fifty Halfbloods and the rest Muggleborns. But this academic year began with three hundred plus students, of which about two hundred of them were muggleborns. To be fair not all two hundred of them were eleven year old. Due to the war reaching its peak in the muggle world about four years ago most muggleborn asked for extension for joining Hogwarts and most shockingly it was granted to them in a rare show of compassion by the British ruling class of purebloods. Now the Headboy and his replacement prefect from the Gryffindor house both asked for a private audience with all the professors this weekend that starts the next day. When he wanted them to explain why they needed to meet them all in person, they just gave the vague reply of 'discussion affecting the future of School'. If the request were made by any other students perhaps he wouldn't be so lenient, but when Charles and Aaron are serious, which generally they are not, it was SERIOUS, He just hoped it wasn't a situation of a 'dreadful serious nature'.

**The Meeting**

It was the first Saturday of the term and before the professors official meet all of them were assembled in the Headmaster's office wondering. Professor Dippet was up in his Quarters getting ready for the day. "What is it Albus, Armando said you called in this gathering. Is it about any of the students?" Albus's friend, colleague and fellow Head of the House said in whisper that carried adequately for everyone in the office to hear. All the small conversation among his peers stopped as they all looked at him waiting keenly for reply. They too had been wondering about the nature of this odd request. As Albus opened his mouth and was about to answer the two students who were the architects of this conference entered the room and as if on a cue, a moment later Dippet too entered his office. So Albus pointed his hands towards the Gryffindor duo and gestured that they would explain.

"**So Charles and Aaron", **the headmaster greeted his final year students**, "now that we Professor are all assembled here as you requested would you start sharing this idea with us." **Armando Dippet asked them cheerfully. He liked these boys; they were full of life and knew how to enjoy their seven years at Hogwarts. They often reminded him of his gang during their days at Hogwarts. Bowing slightly in respect, Charles began addressing their teachers, **"Thank you Professor for being so wonderfully compliant to our request. We",** he gestured Aaron and Himself, **"Have a suggestion for this Historic institution, that we would like to have all of your opinions about."** As Charles waited for every to nod, for their nod or mumble of compliance. Once he had it, he nodded at Aaron to continue, which Aaron did, **"We have been thinking about our Muggleborn friends and their community, the Muggle World, for about a year and we realised that we have no clear idea of what it is like. Our friends from that world have to give up their comfort zone coming into the magical world and have to rely on our help to understand the differences between the two societies. This dependence on us inadvertently gives us the impression that they are somehow below us, which they are not. We did a little digging about the results of O.W.L & N.E.W.T exams for nearly fifty years and found that the muggleborns not only appeared frequently among the top ten but also had better results than us. While they enter a new world, learn its ways and do well here, we magicals can't even dress properly if we want to venture in their world. So we want to rectify this problem. Now that the Muggle war is over and the number of muggleborns is over the moon, we kind of hoped to install a subject introducing us to the average lifestyle of a Muggle."** As Aaron passed to drink some water his cousin continued, "**We already have a person who is ready to teach and it doesn't even violate any secrecy laws as he is a Squib. Both Aaron and I are ready to pay his salary for a decade to begin with, so you have no budget related problems. We",** Charles indicated his cousin and himself, **"Have already bought a three storey hotel in London and remodelled it to suit the Magicals so we could have a two week or so live in there learning the muggle lifestyle. It would be educational and so that you don't have any problem minding the students we can arrange this trip for the fourth years. Everything regarding this subject has mostly been thought about. Our fathers have promised to talk to the Minister, if we managed to get your approval. We have come up with this vague idea to present it to you and the Professor that agreed to teach here also gave us this lesson plan to present it to you."** After handing the bundle to the Headmaster the two young men fell silent eagerly watching for their professor's reactions.

During all this explanation of the two students the Professors were silent, a mostly with open mouths but a couple with disdained expressions. Albus Dumbledore was the only one smiling. He realised that his speech after his return in March from his battle with Gellert had had some benefits. So before any of his colleagues crossed the idea out, he decided to speak for it. **"Headmaster I think we should consider their plan. They have taken the initiative and what's more, they have even considered all the snares of such an appointment. Ewan Potter and Ashton Longbottom are quite powerful Lords, and if they talked to the Minister it is highly unlikely that he would have a problem with it. As these two have also taken care of the wages to the Professor for a decade we would have ample time to check for any disadvantages such an appointment holds before merging it into the Hogwarts curriculum. And about the trip into the Muggle world we can have a poll among the students to see if they would like it. With so many Muggleborns residing here the differences between the nurturing of two societies is glaringly obvious. It would be nice for the children raised in Magical world to know about the domain their brothers come from."** Armando Dippet looked at his Deputy, his eyes far away, thinking about the points Albus had mentioned. The specifics he made were true there was no downside indeed and the school wouldn't face any niggle from the idiots in the Wizengamot or the ministry if Lord Potter and Lord Longbottom spoke for their children. Dippet looked around to see almost all of his colleagues nodding in agreement so, **"You are right Albus and you two",** he turned around to face two excited young men, **"It was very impressive of you to come with such an initiative and to go to the trouble of arranging everything without just expecting the Professor to do it for you. I hope you have learned this sense of responsibility from the years spent here. So that when you do something helpful for our nation, we as professors can claim it as our teaching." **Charles and Ashton squared their shoulders and stood straight, when they heard the agreement, with pride and their posture changed to looking down embarrassed as the Headmaster praised them and later to a laugh with Professor Dippet's joke. **"We did learn a lot from everyone of you sir, and we too hope to take the teachings with us through our lives."** Charles announced with Aaron nodding in agreement. His reply had the Professors smiling and as they left each and every Professor patted them on their backs for their compliment.

Albus Dumbledore was the last to leave the headmaster's office among the professors. He took his leave from Dippet and as he came out he saw the two Gryffindor seventh years at the end of the corridor; Charles was walking briskly while his cousin, Aaron was skipping along his side and both were chatting excitedly. Albus Dumbledore smiled truly, the first time since his duel with Gellert. Maybe there was still hope for Britain to turn things around. He decided to keep an eye on these two young men. These were the powerful allies he needed and if their observations about the magical community were a clue they shared his view on what British Magical Society need to avoid the fate of the mainland European nations.

**Birds of a feather**

From the day of the meeting in the Headmaster's Office a bond of mutual respect formed, which later developed into good friendship. When the families of Potter and Longbottom died in a freak accident Albus was there to console a distraught Charles and Aaron who were suffering from not only pain of the loss but also experiencing survivors guilt. Later on when Armando Dippet retired from Hogwarts in 1954, it was Charles and Aaron who vouched for Albus Dumbledore instead of Charms Professor Sam Oscar, who had the then Minister of Magic, Colin Mrogdtov's, ear. But with Charles and Aaron speaking in favour of Dumbledore, Colin didn't push for Sam. He Colin was already in precarious position and he didn't want to rock an already dodgy boat by going against the powerful combination of Potter and Longbottom Houses not to mention the backing of Bone family.

The hard ride for the small group began from the moment Albus was instigated as the Headmaster of Hogwarts. In a bout of rage at being passed over as the Headmaster by someone half his age Sam Oscar the Charms Professor quit taking with him his close friend and Cousin Baldwin Denovar, the Professor for Magical Creatures Class. And with Dumbledore having to give up teaching Transfiguration they were in need of finding three professors and two Head of Houses. However this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it gave the trio the opportunity to interview Professor Filius Flitwick a half-Goblin who was also recently retired from the duelling circuit after winning it for the fifteenth time in a row. Though there was an outrage at his appointment, the opposition too had to concede that Flitwick was one hell of a candidate for the post. And with the addition of a woman named Minerva McGonagall of the Scottish Highlands, the new sensation in the Transfiguration world, and the appointment of the Famous author of books about Magical creatures Professor Kettleburn, the Hogwarts Staff had the distinct Honour of hosting the most finest crew on their Staff and overnight it went from being one of the best Schools of Europe to being the most desirable school in the World. So desirable that some of the influential wizards from around world donated a large sum Hogwarts to get the school management to consider their requests of adding their children to the Hogwarts rooster. With the I.C.W promoting the Hogwarts Rank from 3rd to Number 1 in their School Standard Report any opposition against the appointment of Albus Dumbledore as the Headmaster vanished without any trace, and he and by default Charles and Aaron had a free enough reign on any changes in the curriculum.

With the wind behind their backs the trio wanted to sail fast using the Positive feedback for their staff. So Introduction to Muggle Studies became a obligatory class for all students who grew up in the magical world along with the History of Magic. They also changed the syllabus of the standard History of Magic class including other topics and minimizing the share of Goblin Wars. They also renamed Care of Magical Creature to Study of Other Magical Species. It would be far too late for the Pureblooded fascists to grasp the importance of these changes. But the trio knew that these little changes were enough to start their process for change. After all, a small stone rolling down was enough to start an avalanche. The change in the name would correct the impression among the young minds that the other Magical Species were not something to be only domesticated, but to be studied and more importantly understood. A small portion of Divination was allotted to be taught by the Centaurs, the masters of trade. But the change that took the cape was the introduction of a Goblin as a guest lecturer. The hostility it caused and the dust it kicked up took some time to settle. It inadvertently brought attention on the Centaurs teaching young Wizards & Witches. However Charles countered the outcries with a well presented speech at the Wizengamot. He pointed out that the Wizarding public relied on the Goblins absolutely for any financial advice and there wasn't any subject dealing with the finances in the Wizarding world; So who better to teach the basics of our economy and Financing than Goblins. And the Centaur portion was to just point out the different forms of Divination and was hardly worth 2 or 3 weeks for the whole five years and the two combined. What Charles Potter failed to mention was that during these three weeks there were double classes almost daily, alternating between the Centaurs and Goblins and they also allocated classes to educate the students of the culture and traditions of these two brilliant societies. It was a masterful stroke and within a decade there was more tolerance among the younger generations and also more talk about tolerance and respect for the other species around the Magical Society.

**The 1960's**

The 1960's were both years that caused immense happiness and deep pain to the reformers. After his marriage with Dorea Black, Charles's old sweetheart on January 11th 1948, who worked in the International Magical Co-Operation, a decision which caused some raised eyebrows among the ruling class at her decision to work and more than few shouting matches in their house with her brother, Arcturus Black, he, Charles didn't have to wait long for the birth of his heir and joy, Ewan Paul Potter on December 18th 1948, named in honour of his father's memory. And no matter how hard they craved for another child they were not granted another one. But in August 1959 the Potters were surprised when Dorea missed her period and nine months later James Charles Potter came into the world and somehow completed the hollow vacancy the Potter couple felt despite their elder son, Ewan. And in 1961, after fourteen years in the Office, the longest for a person without any major promotion in a position, Dorea became the first Witch In Britain Magical Society to become the Head of a Department.

The Longbottom family didn't fare any less, Aaron met Augusta in 1956 at a ball hosted by the Potters. Augusta Dryden daughter of business men Frank Dryden never attended Hogwarts as she was home schooled as her father didn't want his princess to leave home after his wife's death. It was love at first sight for the couple. Aaron who always tried to change the topic when his cousin initiated the topic of 'when are you going to tie the knot?' or Dorea's 'I know a lovely woman for you' could stop talking about gorgeous Augusta. It was the same with Augusta who wanted to know more about the charming Aaron from Dorea. After a month of this pining from afar, Charles couldn't take it anymore he dragged his shy cousin to the Dryden Manor and proposed to Frank that his cousin be allowed to court **'gorgeous'** Augusta, as a bumbling Aaron watched open mouthed, shocked at his Cousin's impetuous actions. A surprised Frank after an initial shock at the unusual proposal laughed on seeing the shocked and embarrassed Lord Longbottom, and gave his blessing to Aaron to court his princess, as he too had observed Augusta's interest in the young man. This incident would later be an endless topic of teasing the couple by the Potters. Augusta and Aaron married after a year of courting and one more of it spending as an engaged couple on November 1st, 1958, the Celtic New Year. But a unfortunate event struck disaster for the couple in 1959 in the form of Frank Dryden's death. He was killed by a gang of thieves who planned to steal his shop not knowing he had stayed late that night. When Frank tried to stop them, they accidentally killed him trying to escape. Augusta took it very hard losing the only parent she remembered and only finding herself pregnant three months later brought her out of the dump. So when she gave birth to a young boy on May 3rd the following year it didn't take a genius to guess what the couple would name the kid.

Just like their fathers, James Potter and Frank Longbottom began best friends. From an early age Dorea and Augusta felt that their sons would grow up to be more troublesome than they had bargained. Since when they were three-four years old they would break in their father's conference room and tried to booby trap the room. As they didn't have the liberty to use magic these traps were at most a cause for some disturbance at most, which made them even more determined to prank their fathers group. Dorea was grateful that at least Ewan was a quite kid who liked to read rather than cause mischief.

By the fall of 1964 the trio of Dumbledore, Aaron and Charles had amassed the support of about 55% of the Wizengamot for implementing changes in the ruling method. But for any such major changes to be implemented they either needed 70% member support or the approval of the Minister of Magic, which was unlikely. It was at this delicate interval where they were losing hope that they received a boon from the Gods in the form of Robert Moody. Robert Moody was the Head of Law enforcement till 1964 when he, with support from the Pureblooded fascist families like Black, Moody and Smith, all of which were very rich, economically and also politically. With Roberts's selection as the Minister the trio thought that their dream was a lost cause. But they in a last ditch attempt put forward their petition, signed with their support. And to their and mostly to the surprise of the fascist families Robert approved their appeal. And he was the first member other the three to join their Magicals United Party and a new dawn rose in Magical Britain in which the Irish joined forming the New union of United Kingdom.


	6. Chapter 6 Meet Salazar

**Chapter 6 - Meet Salazar**

Salazar Marvolo Gaunt previously Tom Marvolo Riddle, named after his father Tom Riddle Sr by his mother on her death bed was presiding over the meeting of his political party, Wizarding Might's inner core, at the remodelled, redecorated and rechristened Riddle Mansion. It was now Gaunt Villa, Salazar Gaunt's home and a place to hold conference with his inner circle. He, Salazar, came up a long way from being the weird kid in the rundown Orphanage to the leader of the opposition party in the new age of United Kingdom's Political arena. The turning point in his life was provided, ironically, by the very man he hated and was now going against, Albus 'Busybody' Dumbledore. When Albus Dumbledore, Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts came to the orphanage in 1950 with an invitation to Hogwarts School for the Gifted, the young boy vowed that he wouldn't be nobody. He would make sure that the Wizards and Witches of the nation will remember him for ever. He wanted to create history. With that kind of ambition it didn't come as a surprise when he was allotted the Slytherin House. His years at Hogwarts went as he had planned. He found out who his parents were and their affiliation with the founder of his House. He found out about the ancestry of the Gaunts, and after he paid his father and grandparents their due respects, he changed his name to Salazar Marvolo Gaunt. With the Riddles being a very wealthy family and him being a carbon copy of Tom sr he acquired their wealth without any problems. The Riddles were landlords since the latter half of sixteenth century, so he also gained the hundreds of acres of land surrounding the village of St. Bentley, which was located between Derby and Stoke-on-Trent in Derbyshire. As soon as he was able to, he evicted the village of its inhabitants and formed a new magical farming town, and named it Salazar Abode. It soon became the headquarters of Agriculture in Magical Britain and had a population of Five thousand wizards and witches as Riddle used his inherited riches in expanding the area, buying of a couple of hundred acres around his existing property. So when the Wizengamot was dissolved and election held, the Salazar Abode became his base.

The elections and dissipation of Wizengamot was a big dent in his plans. After his success at Hogwarts as a Prefect and a Headboy, Tom, by then Salazar, with a boost from his Head of House, Horace Slughorn and his friend, Leo Malfoy, wanted to reinstate the Gaunt House into the Wizengamot. He did not think that the ragtag team led by Dumbledore, Potter and Longbottom would shake the foundations of the community on which he, Salazar, was hoping to build his career. Finally in 1964 after three years of tireless struggle the Wizengamot reinstated the Gaunt house back into its folds but as luck would have it that Bastard Robert Moody agreed with bloodtraitor trio and dissolved the Wizengamot on Halloween 1964 in commemoration of the Celtic holiday of Samhain and instigated something called 'election' throughout the United Kingdom. He later found out that Robert Moody held a deep grudge against his family, the Smiths and the Blacks for the death of a Muggleborn witch he loved when he was young. He suspected that they killed her of to avoid a scandalous marriage when his Great Uncle Richard Smith was running for the Minister of Magic post twenty eight years ago. Though He hated him, he had to give kudos to Robert at the manner he waited for almost three decades, using them in the meantime and finally delivering a killer blow in their kidneys. With the outrage caused by Robert's decision the trio slipped through and managed to rope in the Goblins to conduct the elections under their jurisdiction. In return the Goblins were allowed to install small Gringotts offices in every one of the seven regions. It was chosen through numerology that the nation be dived into seven regions of equal population and each region in kind be divided into 7 Precincts with a upper population limit of ten thousand.

The election next year was a setback for the tradionalist and blood purists but not by a large margin. The wizarding Might Party (W.M.P) of which he, Salazar, was a member didn't do too badly despite the six seat difference between the W.M.P and the Magical Union Party (M.U.P) led by Robert Moody, Charles Potter and Aaron Longbottom. In over ten precincts the battle between opponents was close and the vote difference was below fifty. With having more than fifty percent of seats the M.U.P formed the government with Robert moody as the Minister of Magic. Though the first term lasted for seven years, because the M.U.P didn't have the necessary seventy percent backing to implement any major bills through the Senate, not a whole lot change could be seen. The only major change was that the government term was reduced from seven to four years. The second time around the defeat was of similar difference in number of seats (six) but this time the margins of their losses were large, despite the death of Aaron Longbottom due a rare Magical malady. Both times Salazar won at his precinct by a humungous difference, curtsey of his precinct being the town of Salazar Abode and the surrounding area and both times Harvey Moody, Robert's father lost against his son. With a decade of sitting in the side lines drove the proud members of their party mad, which included Harvey Moody, Arcturus Black, Corey Smith and Abraxas Malfoy (Leo's uncle). As a result after their second consecutive loss, they made some harsh statements regarding the Wizarding public as a result of which the party lost four more precincts which made the ratio 29 to 16 with four seats won by Irish and Scottish individual who didn't want to be associated with either political union. This prompted the other members of the W.M. party to ask the foursome to withdraw from the party or replace themselves with their sons. Only Abraxas and Arcturus took to this demotion from their own party well and allotted Lucius Malfoy his son as his replacement. The Smith and Moody families withdrew from the political arena and took with them their funds. Salazar was the only member of their Party to win in either election by a convincing margin, and with his relation with Salazar Slytherin the initiator of the plod purity movement he was their unopposed leader. Even with the reduced funds Salazar (Riddle) produced the closest fought election in '76. The result was 25 to 24 in favour of the M.U.P. Salazar (Riddle) managed to rope in high profiled Scottish and Irish Wizards to run in ten of the 13 constituencies with slogans of Irish in Ireland and Scottish in Scotland. Of the ten, eight of them managed a victory levelling the political playing field. Lucius Malfoy was a true blessing and turned out to be more sly than his father. Salazar (Riddle) wanted to win the election this time and it was for this reason his most trusted lieutenants were assembled at his house.

"**So Lucius tell me, what have you learnt from your contacts in the Goblin world? What are our opponents planning?"** Salazar asked his right hand man, Lucius Malfoy.

"**I am not sure Mr Gaunt. I heard somethings, but do not think there is any truth in these rumours."** Malfoy replied, his face reflecting the uncertainty his words conveyed. Salazar (Riddle) had come to value Lucius's advice in the matters of public perception but he wanted to hear any rumour, no matter how outrageous they were, regarding his opposition. He didn't want make the same mistake of underestimating Dumbledore that his predecessors were guilty of. In the one thing to learn from the past mistakes, he and Albus were similar, and Salazar respected his opponent.

"**Well… the rumour is that they are forwarding ten women to run for the precincts that we have never lost. I mean it's preposterous enough that they are introducing ten women it makes even more ridiculous that they are to contest against our strongholds"**, Lucius mumbled still uncertain.

"**May be they are desperate. It was obvious that the last election was far closer than they ever expected."** Rookwood's comment ignited some laughter, at their opponent's distress, around the room. But Lucius and Borgin of Borgin & Burkes looked intently at their leader as he was deep in his thoughts. After a couple of minutes of silent brooding Salazar (Riddle) snapped out with

"**Yeah I think Augustus is correct. Maybe they are desperate attempt, but we would be idiots not to plan ahead for such an eventuality."** There were solemn nods throughout the room. There was one thing the occupants agreed on – Their leader, though seldom showed it, was a very dangerous and powerful Wizard, and they took his suggestions very seriously. From that point the conversation swirled to other topics such as their ploys, the seat allotment and things.

**War of Words**

'Albus Dumbledore is mental and Charles Potter is doubly so for even listening to him' was the thought that was in circulation throughout the Nation. Even Prophet which was supportive of M.U.P raised a few question about the sanity of the above two. What the Prophet and the opposition didn't consider was the Women were outraged at some of the comments issued by the W.M.P leaders in the Prophet when asked about the opposition nominating women against them. During the campaign M.U.P advisors namely Dorea and Albus asked their candidate to concentrate on the positive development plans the party wanted to instigate and ignore any impertinent comments from their opposition.

**Campaign in Knockturn Alley**** Lily Potter Vs. Ben Borgin**

"**My fellow residents and businessmen of Knockturn Alley it is obvious as to why the MUP selected Lily Potter as their candidate to contest here- They want to use the gratefulness you feel, they want to exploit your emotions. I am sure that her volunteering here was some great big scheme her husband and Father-in-law planned. They were in the ruling government for nearly twenty years and they didn't provide me with any funds to take care of the health issues we have her, now we know why. The Potter family wants to exploit us like the rich stuck ups they are."** This was the standard speech wherever he went and the attendance to his speeches was full to the brim, and reception was better than it ever was. What he didn't know was his fellow businessmen, except his inner circle, had issued a general request that everyone should attend his speech if they could spare anytime. They didn't want any air to leak out of their 'betrayal' to him. Borgin was not just cunning but he could ruin most of his neighbour without much effort.

While Borgin was on this offensive volley Lily Potter neglected everything he said, but when he had said that as she was a woman she wouldn't know how to govern the precinct and that that work too would fall on her Husband who would try to destroy every resident with even a mild criminal history, which was nearly all of them. It was the only comment that Lily reacted to and that too very fiercely – She asked him if his knowledge of magical history was poor or else he was confused as to whether Morgana- famous Magical inventor who invented the making of wands and nearly half the spells the average British Wizard used daily, Bathilda – all her history books were used as text books not only at Hogwarts but also in nearly every western nation, Nefertiti the Witch Queen of Egypt who revolutionized their religion and also was the architect of Akhetaten and not mention his mother who gave birth to him and raised him. This hot reply made her dearer to the witches of United Kingdom. Baring that one incident Lily basically stuck to her plan of meeting every single person be it Wizards, Witches, Squib or any other forms of magical being such as Hags, Vampire and Werewolves to note their problem even though the later beings had no voting privilege. It endeared her to the public even more. Even the vampires, who generally seldom entered into wizard issues and very rarely if ever warmed up to them, thought highly of her. So while Borgin was celebrating an early victory despite Salazar's caution of not taking the opposition lightly Lily was worming her way into nearly every one hearts. Even the wizards close to Borgin showed her a begrudged respect for what she was trying to do.

**Alice Vs. Fudge - Kendal & Darlington**

Alice in her campaign explains how the MUP would implement better health care facilities and allot most of the funds the first year of their next regime to install new hospitals, one in region like St. Mungo's. And their ploy to counter unemployment problem by allotting all the non-healing jobs in maintenance, security and also half the healing jobs to the local regional residents. She promised that she would also install a public greenhouse in the district from which the locals can buy herbs required for the making of domestic potions such as Headache potions, Pain-numbing potions and Pain relievers for women during their sensitive days.

Fudge however accuses Alice of trying to amass the public funds into their own family coffers which most of the citizens of the district were accusing him of behind his back. He conveniently neglected that Alice promised that she would use her own funds to construct the public greenhouse so that she could utilize the funds allotted to the precinct for any other problems that might crop up over the time and if not to commission three to four parks in the constituency.

**Dorcas Meadows-Davies Vs. Alfred Umbridge**** - Region 5 District one**

Dorcas was the only one of the ten new candidates that had it easy. Though Alfred won the last two times from the constituency, the electors of the district were fed up with his behaviour. The only region he got elected the last two times was because of most of electors, about 30% of the voters, worked in the businesses owned by Alfred's distant cousin, Warren Bowman, who was one of the two rich supporters of Alfred during the previous elections. But recently when the cousin's son married a young French halfblooded girl out of love, to which Warren gave his whole hearted permission as he liked the girl very much and he and his wife too married for love, Alfred, being the charming man he was, talked nasty about the girl in a public arena to which his cousin responded with jumping to the other side and supporting Dorcas who by coincidence also happened to be the young French bride's distant cousin. He did the switch very publicly and his employees expressed their happiness by throwing him a huge party. Seeing the reactions of employees of Warren industry, Warren's friend and the other man funding Alfred, Gary Truman had a meeting with his employees asking them about their feeling about the candidate he supported to which they replied in a flustered manner cluing him that they too were not happy. Gary was first and foremost a businessman and to him his employees working without any resentment was more important than Alfred. So he calmly distanced himself from Alfred. The loss of the two of his most influential backers was a big setback for Alfred and he could see the writing on the wall clearly. So Alfred Umbridge withdrew from the campaign and Dorcas made history of being the first woman to enter the senate and that too without any opposition, which also was a first.

**Maria Lovegood Vs. Howard Grigsby** Region 6 District 7 – near Oxford

Maria Lovegood was the most famous researcher and Developer that worked at the Department of Mysteries as an Unspeakable. The Department head of Mysteries Croaker agreed to let her go only if she would still come by and also to not let go of her passion for research and development. This conversation however made it into the Prophet curtsey of a friendly old reporter Rita Skeeter, who did special articles for the paper. None new how she eavesdropped on the most private conversations but they ended on the front page from time to time. Croaker once said at his Department meeting that anyone who got him her secret would get one month leave with double pay. That was how well she was liked. Howard attacked Maria by saying that she was neglecting her duty to the nation by giving up her post to run for Senate. "We need all the help as the previous governments have done a big fat zilch in this department. And it's odd that she is supporting the same side who didn't allow any funds for development in that area."

Maria countered Howard by pointing out that the bills that the previous governments introduced regarding the development in research were not supported by the Howard's own W.M.P. "…and now Howard has the audacity to say that I am not doing my job. And if he is that concerned about our lack any significant development in research, why didn't he convince his friends in the opposition to vote for the bill?" Maria then pointed out that if the British magical community would let go of their pride, they could take a valuable lesson from their own colony of United States, which was the leading nation on research and development. "They have mastered the wards and spells that allow them to live among the muggles without any magical interference to the muggle apparatus and we have yet to master the knack of dressing up as a muggle without alerting everyone in the fifty metre radius. It will be in our country's best interest that we start a magical school for masters or merge it with the existing muggle schools for the higher study like the States did with Harvard University." She went on to describe all the uses of such an institution and comforts that the public would gain. Howard being the typical pureblood scoffed at that-"We don't need to learn anything from those colonial rats. And she should be ashamed to even suggest that, it's blasphemous. And what do the muggles have that we need. We are much better than them in all regards." It doesn't take a genius to deduce that his words didn't endear him to the Muggleborns and Halfbloods who had muggle relatives and importantly made sixty percent of the electors mad at Howard. Salazar (Riddle) too wasn't happy with Howard. He had specifically ordered his party candidates not to sprout off their disregard for muggles as he realised that over half of the voters in most of the constituencies were muggleborns.

**Amelia Vs. Alexander Salmond ****– Region 3, the Scottish northern Highlands **

This battle was the classic local versus the outsider. The most deciding factor in nearly all of the Irish and Scottish constituencies was the selection of a local member and it was here that the M.U.P hit their greatest loses in the previous election. Until the previous election where Salazar (Riddle) managed to convince the leaders of the Irish and Scottish community they always stayed away and only allied with the M.U.P from the outside. This time around though Albus was finally able to convince Nathan McGonagall, Minerva's brother, from the Scotland and Peter Finnegan from Ireland to not only contest but also to find friends who wanted to stand up for the bullying of their local leaders who became a law onto themselves. The opposition against their oppression made people in the academic community, who generally stayed away from the politics, to stand up in order to protect the public. Peter and Nathan managed to stir up nine other wizards to contest in the remaining ten electorates. All that remained was the district of the Northern Highlands, the kingdom of Alexander Salmond. He ruled this area with an iron fist and any other scots refused to stand up to him. When Albus and Charles was discussing the dilemma of who to select there, Amelia who was also present at the meeting volunteered to campaign there. She had in the past locked horns with Salmond in her capacity as the Head Auror of the Northern Highland Division and she hated the bastard, as she called him. Alastor Moody, Robert's brother who joined M.U.P along his brother in 1964, volunteered to the protection detail of Amelia. Alastor hated the politics as much as his brother but unlike Robert he had no drive to contest to show his father down. He liked chasing the 'Criminal Scumbags' much better than the mud bath of politics. And also it was from his unfinished case, when he retired from the Auror division, that Amelia acquired the Salmond case and also he was Amelia's Mentor.

By the time the official campaign period began there had been about six intimidation attempts on Amelia. Albus fearing for her life asked her to back off the contest but each attempt made her more determined to run for the office. Amelia knew that she had the support of the public, in private though. And she also knew that despite the hurdles she faced from Senator Salmond she had brought justice to many families which were the victims of Salmond illegal operations and hoped that the public would realise that if she won, with the backing of the government, she could destroy Salmond completely. So when Salmond Publicly criticized the M.U.P for selecting woman to run against him, she was talking to the individual in the families of the victims of Salmond's crimes to spread the word around that if they elected her into the office they wouldn't have to fear him anymore as then he wouldn't have any political support from even his own party. Despite winning from the constituency four consecutive times Salmond due to his vast array of charms induced hatred even within his political comrades, who would much rather see him burn than help him. The family members Amelia spoke knew that she was a person who stood by her word as they had witnessed it first hand when she promised to go after Salmond hard despite his political power. She had a dozen such official reprimands from Charles Potter to prove it, when he was acting as the Minister for Defence. Though officially chiding her in private Charles wanted her to keep cracking at Salmond's illegal Operations. There was silent cheer for Amelia Bones also nicknamed as 'Iron Bones' throughout the district.

**Madam Malkin Vs. Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black **- **Diagon alley (London and Essex) **

The only female member of W.M.P and the candidate for M.U.P couldn't be of more opposite personal traits if you looked around the world with a microscope. Madame Malkin was a bubbly, mild mannered, polite and always brought the warmth of a mother's bosom in the person talking with her where as her opponent Bellatrix Lestrange was hot tempered. Sore, rude and brought with her the 'Cheerful' aura of a Dementor. Their physical features were also quite opposite. Where Bellatrix was quite tall around 5ft 7in, handsome and fit to battle anyone in duel, Madame Malkin was short, pudgy and looked like she never left her couch. These differences also showed in their campaign. Trixy, as a young Sirius teased her, spouted of venom against the muggleborn accusing them of trying to destroy the tradition, culture that was preserved for nearly millennia and criticized the M.U.P candidates for being short sighted and stupid to fall victim to the charms of the Muggle lifestyle. Madame Malkin's speech on the other hand contained titbits from her personal experience with muggleborns and the muggle culture they introduced her to. "A few years back, 1971 to be exact I met this vivacious little girl. She had jeans trousers on her and her hair was cut short; her eyes were wide with wonder and excitement and along with her were two elders, her parents definitely muggles. You could tell that she was excited to enter our world. A few other students were there as well, a couple of girls and their brother. When she saw the girls still in my shop wearing their new school uniform her face scrunched up. She came up to me and asked if she too could get the robes like the boy and not the skirts. As you can imagine, I was little surprized. I prided at my ability to design stylish skirts that the girls loved their school uniform as they fancier than the boy's bland black robes. When I asked her why she didn't want to were my skirts she replied that it made it harder for her to compete with boys in a running race and also stressed that she had to were the boys uniform so that they treated her the same without thinking her to be physically weak. Her mother sighed exasperated and gently chided her husband for encouraging her as he, I was amazed, looked on proudly at his daughter ruffling her hair lovingly. So I handed her the boys robes and her mother apologised me for her daughter's persistence and shook her head and followed the Father Daughter pair that entered Flourish and Blotts. In our Magical Society such a girl would have been scolded not encouraged by her father. After that incident I made time from my schedule to venture into the muggle world. There is lot we can learn from them; due to the absence of magic they had to innovate and improvise a lot. At first I thought the young girl I met was an odd case but when I went into the muggleworld I saw females, not just girls mind you, but also women wearing trousers, jeans and some even riding the motor cycles. It was truly an eye opener, here we thought they were less evolved or whatever rubbish the blood purist grumble on deliriously and they were actually ahead of us. Sure we have magic to aide us but it doesn't mean we have to be content with lying stagnant at where we were a thousand years ago."

Her speech didn't get her any solid supporters but a lot of the women went home thoughtful. In the following days they were more incidents of old fashionably clad women venturing into the muggle world. The muggle newsreader mockingly commented that perhaps the 1940's were back in England. Lily, who was shopping in the Diagon Alley for a Mother's Day gift at the time of Madame Malkin's speech, was mortified when she heard her speak. Later on when she apparated to the Ambience she told Cameroon about Madame Malkin's Speech. Cameroon laughed and recalled the incident with detailed description of Lily's and Malkin's facial expression leaving her daughter even more embarrassed.

**Chloe Onorate Carrow** – _Region 7 Cambridgeshire_

The county of Cambridgeshire was the only district where the Pureblood fraction dominated the Halfbloods and Muggleborns in numbers. It was full of old family estates, many of which dated back to 800 A.D. But the fact that most of them were fence sitters backing neither M.U.P nor W.M.P was the only thing that kept the hope alive among the M.U.P members. They had managed to win the first two times but the riddle lead W.M.P snatched it back the last couple of times. It was clear to the M.U.P that only bill encouraging more wealth accumulating opportunities would sway the majority of the purebloods to their side. It was one of the reasons that Chloe was selected as the candidate despite her plea that the position be given to her sister, Liz, Lily's friend and Classmate. But Lily convinced her to run for the post as she had a master's in Economics and Financing at Harvard, curtsey of her mother being an American witch, that is, more prone to send her daughter abroad for studies. It was also Chloe who, in her research to find something to sway the pureblooded businessmen, found the case of the South-Eastern Asian Countries. The economic advisors of leaders of countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and Philippines, came up with the idea of a Single Market system through a standardised system of laws, which apply in all member states, and ensures the free movement of people, goods, services and capital, including abolition of controlled Portkeys. The leaders agreed to such a union and thus formed the S.E.A. union. The result of the union was plain for everyone to see; there was an economic boom and the SEA became Asia's richest union beating China and India. Many other neighbouring countries tried to implement it but disputes among the group led to the union's failure. Since in Europe such disputes were laid to rest in the last century there wasn't any reason why they couldn't implement such a union. As most of the purebloods in that district for strictly business minded such a union would captivate them and sway them towards their side. Not only them but all the Magical community could gain much from such a union. So while Carrow sprouted of his vile ideas with his speeches and tried to frighten the purebloods by saying that if they elected a pro mudblooded government they should hand over their businesses to the mudbloods as well, Chloe spoke of unity among magicals in her public speeches while privately seducing the money minded businessmen with the idea of the economic boom due to a European Union. When she backed her theory with economic studies from S.E.A union and its development they were on board.

Evey Bennett, Lara Jenkins and Erin Griffiths in their speeches targeted the muggleborns who made up 40 percent of the electors and the women who made another 27 percent. They promised to form a government which catered to their needs better and if the electors around the country helped drive the W.M.P out by electing them for 35 seats plus they could do some serious reforming work transforming the nation into a golden era of progress and development.

**Seven Regions**** and the districts in each Region**

**Region 1**:- Ireland (except Northern Ireland)

Districts – i) areas surrounding Cork and south of River Black water.

ii)areas surrounding Waterford and Wexford

iii)areas surrounding Limerick and Lake Derg

iv)areas surrounding Galway, Lakes Mask and Corrib

v)areas surrounding Sligo, Lakes Conn and Rea

vi)areas surrounding Bray, Dublin and Dun Laoghaire

and vii)areas surrounding Dundalk and Drogheda

**Region 2:- **Northern Ireland, Scotland, south of Glasgow and Edinburgh and England north of Durham and Sunderland.

Districts – i) areas surrounding Antrim, Omagh and Coleraine

ii) areas surrounding Belfast, Newry, Portadown and Bangor

iii) areas surrounding Seamill, Ayr and Irvine

iv) areas surrounding Stanraer and Dumfries

v) areas surrounding Newtown & Nerwick-upon-Tweed

vi) areas surrounding Douglas, Whitehaven, Workington & Carlise

and vii) areas surrounding New Castle and Cheviot Hills

**Region 3**:- remaining Scotland

Districts – i) areas surrounding Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock

ii) areas surrounding Falkirk, Edinburgh & Kirkcandy

iii) areas surrounding Perth, Dundee and Arboath

iv) areas surrounding Oban, Mull isles, Harris and Mallaig

v) areas surrounding outer islands and the Hebrides isles

vi) areas surrounding Ullapool, Orkney isles & Shetland isles

and vii) areas surroundings Aberdeen, Inverness and Fraserburgh

**Region 4**:- Wales, Merseyside, Cheshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.

Districts – i) areas surrounding Swansea, Fishgaurd and Cardigan

ii) areas surrounding Holyhead and Wrexham

iii) areas surrounding Ellesmere port, Liverpool, Preston and Blackpool

iv)areas surrounding Runcorn, Crewe and Salazar Abode

v) areas surrounding Shrewsbury, Dudley and Birmingham

vi)areas surrounding Hereford and Gloucester

and vii)areas surrounding Cardiff, Bristol and Newport

**Region 5 – **Lancashire, East, West & South Yorkshire, Durham, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lincolnshire

Districts i)areas surrounding Durham, Sunderland and Middlesbrough

ii)areas surrounding Kendal and Darlington

iii)areas surrounding Morecambe and Bradford

iv)areas surrounding Bolton, Mansfield and Manchester

v)areas surrounding York, Leeds, Barnsley and Bridlington

vi)areas surrounding Hull, Grimsby and Lincoln

and vii)areas surrounding Boston, Nottingham, Leicester and Skegness

**Region 6**: - Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Isle of Wight, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Hamshire

Districts i)areas surrounding Falmouth, , Penzance and St. Austell

ii)areas surrounding Plymouth, Newton Abbot and Bodmin

iii)areas surrounding Taunton, Bridgwater, Exeter and Weymouth

iv)areas surrounding Frome, Newbury, Aylesbury and Winchester

v)areas surrounding Southampton, Fareham and Bournemouth

vi)areas surrounding Reading and Swindon

and vii)areas surrounding Oxford, Bicester and Luton

**Region 7**:-West and East Sussex, Surrey, Greater London, Kent, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire.

Districts – i) Knockturn Alley, London and Hertfordshire

ii) Diagon Alley, London and Essex

iii)areas surrounding Brighton, Chichester, Lewis and Maidstone

iv) areas surrounding Northampton and Bedford

v)areas surrounding Cambridge

vi) areas surrounding Norwich

and vii) areas surrounding Ipswich


	7. Chapter 7 Change is Here

**CHAPTER 7 – Change is Here**

**Shore of North Sea, 50kms East of Bexley, W.M.P Headquarters **

The sound of waves crashing into the bank was the only thing heard in the Headquarters. Shell shocked, each candidate who had lost unthinkably was wearing their hand on their heads, mouths open. Lucius however was looking at their leader. The cruel expression on Salazar's (Riddle's) face would haunt him in his dreams for the foreseeable future. His opinion that the magical community would slap away Dumbledore's ploy of introducing women into the battle was biggest blunder in his entire life. The ten 'women' candidates had not only won but their victories were sensational. This election poll also set the record for the highest percentage of votes chronicled. A total of 96.5% votes were registered as opposed to the 57% which was the previous best in 1965. Lucius was smart enough to understand that the difference was mainly due to the apathy shown by the Witches in the prior elections. Now that they had adequate representation in the Senate the Witch community had come out and made their voices heard. And the voice was loud enough to deafen him and his comrades for quite sometime. The media though would have the time of their lives. The only nation where the purebloods formed a major portion of the electoral defied its beliefs and elected women before men. On his right Lucius saw Borgin. Only the memory of the look on Salazar's (Riddle's) face deterred him from laughing at the dodgy shopkeeper. He had the worst ever defeat barring the unanimous election of Dorcas Davies. Out of the ten thousand electors, ninety seven hundred of them voted for his opponent and that too after his most successful campaign speeches. Everywhere Borgin spoke there were at least five hundred in the crowd. The W.M.P managed a paltry fourteen seats to the thirty five by the M.U.P. But three of their party's Irish and Scottish candidates who had won had already left the headquarters. 'I would bet my life that they were at the Potter Mansion in Norwich now. So technically, we only had eleven seats to our name', thought Malfoy.

**Potter Mansion, 60kms North of Norwich**

Lucius Malfoy was correct in his thinking. Four men wearing black cloaks suddenly appeared in an open field. The Wizards turned around and saw, about 200mts from them, their target, the Potter Mansion. Cheers of joy were heard even at this distance. The men exchanged glum looks as they were about to enter the gate guarding the grounds.

"Welcome gentlemen, I have been waiting for you for half an hour. I hope you are here because you have reconsidered my offer of lending us your allegiance." The four startled men with hands on their hearts looked into the twinkling Blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore. Albus knew that with the huge loss the W.M.P suffered tonight the Irish and Scottish leaders, with the exception of Salmond, would try to distance themselves from them. He had hoped that at least a few of them would jump on to their boat. He had to explain the importance of this merger to the younger generation. Sirius was particularly hard to convince, indifferent to his refusal to enter the political arena; he was the follower of Alastor's ideology – 'It's more fun to be an Auror than to sit in the Senate and listen to budget meets.

**Ten Minutes Ago**

"I don't understand Dumbledore, Why should we allow the weasels to join us? Didn't we ask them for their co-operation before? I say we let them rot, after all they did support Gaunt's idiots last time around." Sirius protested against Albus's suggestion to allow any Irish and Scottish leaders to merge with them.

"Sirius Orion Black shut your gap and listen completely to what Albus is saying. Honestly you haven't learnt a thing about manners since you were three years old." Sirius rolled his eyes in exasperation at his Aunt's Scolding. Unfortunately Dorea saw this. "Don't you roll your eyes boy or I will box your ears."

Albus who was smiling at Sirius turned his head slightly and nodded his thanks at Dorea Potter. He had expected the interruption but had guessed that it would come from James Or Frank as it had been those two who went to ask the Irish and Scottish leaders for allegiance respectively. 'I should have guessed it would be Sirius. He is very protective of his friends', Albus thought. It was true Sirius was always very protective of his friends especially James. You could insult Sirius and live to tell the tale but one can never insult James or the rest of Marauders before Sirius if they expected to live. Albus remembered Sirius's rant for three hours, insulting the leaders, their parent, their grandparents and even their great grandparents. He would have continued further if Dorea hadn't slapped him on the back of his head. Sirius feared no one not even Lily or Dumbledore or Charles but Dorea frightened him. 'May be it's a Black thing' Charles had once said to Dumbledore. Irrespective of the reason, Albus was grateful for Dorea's interjection, so he continued.

"Yes Sirius I know that they refused us before but if we embraced them now when we do not require their assistance they would never deviate from us in the future. Besides Nathan's and Peter's friends prefer their academic career to politics and this was only a onetime thing. If the others see use embracing their clan members without any need to do so we can solidify our support in these two nations. Also I don't think that the candidates who have criminal ties would approach us, so there is no harm in it and only longterm gain."

Everyone agreed but Sirius still didn't like it. Once he made his mind about anyone he didn't change it; doubly so if that someone insulted his friends. The only exception was Lily Evans now Potter.

**Present**

Shane O'Hanahan, Niall Cusack, Kevin O'Brien and Dewald Hoffmann were the four non English politicians that came to join M.U. Party. The first three were the most influential Irish leaders and with their admission the M.U.P swept the Irish constituencies completely into their basket. Though Dewald lost his battle against Craig Hamilton, a Potion master and social reformer, it was still a close battle and now with Dewald's admission into the party Craig can happily go back to his research in potioneer. Albus led the thoroughly embarrassed foursome into the Potter garden. They stood at the side and observed the Chaos as Albus went to collect Charles. It was loud. The children were running around in age related gangs. The small girls, below three years, were off to the side playing calmly with one lone young boy keeping them company sometimes attack their midriff, tickling them, making them laugh. The boys except for four were all in the air on their broomstick flying along with three men acting as their chaperone in air, who shouted at them to slow down if any tried to go faster than was allowed. Two women, Lily Potter and her friend whose name eluded them, were also watching the children in air, from time to time sneaking glances away from the conversation they were having with Charles Potter and Dedalus Diggle, as the elderly men exchanged amused looks when the women would sneak a glance at the kids. A plump red headed woman, a black lady with straight long hair and women they knew as Dorcas Davies were also not paying much attention to the discussion being conversed in their group. The three of them were not even pretending to be listening, unlike Lily and her friend, but their group seemed to be fine. In fact James Potter and Frank Longbottom would sneak at the boys and then glance back to the ladies then share a look before smiling broadly. The four newcomers new of James's and Frank's reputation as pranksters, So they looked at the four kids more closely. The kids perhaps sensing they were being watched turned around and looked at the women, perhaps their mothers if their hair was any clue, and smiled innocently making their mothers roll their eyes and James & Frank to snicker. The four men watching also let out small laughs at the kid's behaviour. All four of them were Grandfathers so they had their fair share of grandkids who were much too mischievous for their own good and knew to spot such children when they saw one. Charles, Dedalus and Albus reached them as the foursome started laughing. Charles looked at where the four new recruits were looking and smiled

"Ah yes the new marauders, always plotting. It feels like yesterday when Aaron and I were eaves dropping on my father's group. Now when I open my eyes I am a grandfather, but there are still troublemakers in the making." Charles's words brought smiles again on to the faces of those present. Albus agreed with his old friend's words "Yes I think that is one think that would never change no matter how many governments change and new bills introduced, and I hope it won't ever. But enough about young boys and their penchant for doing mischievous things lets gather everyone up, except Molly, Lily, Remus and Alice, and talk about what new reforms we have to bring about. These four years we have to be very careful in our reforms. We have for the first time nearly total control over the policies to be implemented and that is great power which has to be wielded correctly and with great caution. I don't think Molly, Lily and Alice would leave the kids out in the playground alone and Remus is their designated chaperon for broomstick related activities. We will leave the chaperoning duty to them along with John and Cameroon." As Dumbledore spoke the last words the rest of the elderly gentlemen with him looked around, some at Molly warning the twins not to cause any trouble today, some at Alice directing Remus towards Neville and Harry, who were trying to start a race and the rest at a smiling Lily who responded to the pleas from Luna and Ginny to catch a laughing Blake who attacked the girls, tickling them. As Albus and Charles gather the herded the crowd into the living room for the official party conference regarding their goals during the next four years Lily tackled an out of breath Blake and they fell to the ground in a heap giggling madly, joined after a moment by Luna and Ginny who finally caught up to them. Albus shared mirthful look with Lily's Parents who were also watching their daughter chase after Blake at his laughter as the girls and Lily tickled him. And after filling his mind with picture of the happy group he went inside closing the door on him.

**The Conference inside **

Albus Dumbledore stood on the third step on the stairs leading to the first floor in the magically enlarged living room of the Potter Mansion, looking down at the excited faces of the party members. The victory was more than what they had hoped for and the jolt of the surprise was clearly embedded on each person assembled. Sirius was entertaining his peers by doing funny impression of his mother making them laugh. Dumbledore could not hear everything and could only see Sirius's expression but the impression was uncanny and more importantly amusing. Walagabura Black was not a pleasant person to talk to more so if she knew you supported the 'Muggle Filth'. Dorea, who is the sister of current Lord Black, Arcturus visited her brother seldom but had shared with him that she tried to avoid her sister-in-law. Albus didn't envy Sirius for growing up with such a woman for a mother figure. If not for Dorea Sirius would have spent his teen years in the Black Mansion in London, a place, Sirius said, he would prefer after the Azkaban prison with only Dementors for conversation. Sirius had tried to divert his younger brother from their mother's teachings hoping that their comradelier times when they were kids gave him the edge, but Regulus was not swayed. Though Sirius stated that he didn't care if his brother rotted under their mothers shadows, Albus knew he still cared for the little boy he remembered protecting. Albus could surely relate to Sirius's feeling as he too kept close tabs on Aberforth despite the fact that his brother still hated him. Albus came out of his musings as Charles cleared his throat loudly and tilted his head at Albus indicating him to speak to the crowd. Albus nodded his head and smiled before casting loud and bright sparks, drawing the attention from the assembled persons. Sirius booed at Albus for interrupting his act for which he was awarded with Dorea winding his ears resulting in a moan of pain from Sirius and laugh from his friends.

"Ha Yes Sirius I will try to keep my speech and allow you to entertain the guests with your mimicry of Lady Black. But I am afraid there is a lot to discuss but I am sure we will excuse you for finer details." With that he turned to the rest of the pack and Continued "Congratulations are in order for our party members and the advisors who worked behind the scenes tirelessly for us to achieve this great Victory. While everyone who won or lost is to be applauded I think everyone would agree that special cheers should go to our debutants who rocked the ship of our opposition. So please everyone put your hands together for Amelia, Chloe, Maria, Vivian (Madame Malkin), Erin, Lara, Eve, Dorcas, Alice and Lily." The ten ladies Dumbledore mentioned waved around some shyly like Maria, Chloe and Eve while other with varied expressions from grave to smiles. "Lily and Alice are out and be sure to pass your congratulations to these younglings who I am sure would revolutionize the laws governing our nations." Albus turned his head towards Charles as he reminded Albus about the new members of the M.U.P but an Impatient Sirius started clapping, cheering as he thought Albus was done and turned back to the group he was entertaining before the **rude** interruption of Albus's speech to get back to his act. But to his frustration Albus continued "Thank you Sirius for your encouragement. With such willing and attentive addressees I think I want to talk for an hour more." As expected this got a huge moan that was followed by an even louder boo from Sirius as he covered his ears protecting them from his Aunt. Albus laughed at the young Auror and comforted him "Not to worry Sirius I have one last thing to add. We have four new members allying with our party. Please welcome for our new members Shane O'Hanahan senator from Waterford, Ireland, Niall Cusack senator from Dublin, Ireland, Kevin O'Brien senator from Belfast and our Scottish brother from Dundee, Dewald Hoffmann. I hope you will make our new party members feel at home and welcome them into our family. With that I take your leave. Sirius I think you can go back to entertaining your friends and once again WELLDONE." Sirius cheered Albus's decision to end his boring dribble while they could enjoy the party. Albus called Charles, Alastor, Elphias, Dedalus, Maria and Amelia as came down the stairs. "Maria dear will you please call Lily. I need to talk to her in private." As Maria smiled and left to inform Lily of Dumbledore's request, he turned around to his old friend Elphias Doge, "Elphias please inform Chloe, James, Frank and Arthur to meet us in Charles's office and you Charles please bring with you Evey and Douglas while I collect our new members and meet the rest of you there."

**Charles's Office, Potter Mansion **

As everyone took their seats on the couches around the table, Albus and Charles sat in the chair before the table. Charles started the conversation as all the invited guests made themselves comfortable on their couches.

"You were all invited here as Albus, Elphias and I have thought of to add you into the cabinet. I know Dewald and Shane are last minute additions but it was like it was meant to be. We hadn't decided on who to place in a couple of posts and both of you are tailor made for them. I know for a few of you this is the debut in the senate but I have complete confidence that you would do justice to the posts we have assigned for you."

Elphias agreed "Yes, we believe that a mixture of youth and experience is required for the important posts. Before this election itself we had this rough plan drawn up and by the Gods' Grace we didn't have alter it much." Albus took over and announced the posts

"Lily, you are to take the position of the Minister of Health. I know for sure that there is no one better for the post than you and I ask Shane if he is willing to act as Lily's deputy as he too has a background in medicine." Shane O'Hanahan nodded his head displaying his agreement before smiling congenially at the Potter daughter in law who smiled her thanks. Albus too smiled happily, "Excellent. Now moving on to the position of Minister of Defence – Amelia we allotted the post to you and Alastor had already agreed to be your assistant." Amelia nodded and thanked her mentor "Thanks Alastor. I am glad I have such an efficient Wizard with knowledge of the criminal enterprises." Moody barked out a harsh laugh "Hahhaah, no sweat laddie. We will make them bleed out their illegal operations, starting with that bastard Salmond." Albus shook his head, exasperated at his old friend's penchant for rocking bludgers at hardened criminals as hard as they try to resist arrest. "Those Plans latter Alastor. Now where were we, ha yes after Law enforcement the next ministry is Finance and who better than the girl who won the hearts or rather the minds of hardened pureblooded businessmen." Chloe, embarrassed, looked like she would rather have the earth open wide and swallow than be there. "Don't look down dear. You did what we with our added experience couldn't do and not only that you also gave us very good financial advice. And that is why we want Dewald to help our young Evey who will be our new Foreign Affairs Minister. Both of you have very powerful relatives in France, Spain and Germany who could sway the governments of those countries to sign the Union Treaty Chloe mentioned to us. I too would do my part as I have a few friends in the ICW representing Austria, Greece and Norway. More countries that sign the agreement the higher the economic boom will be." "Yes, it will be mutually beneficial. And to continue we want Frank to head the Education & Research Ministry with Maria to be the Deputy Minister. We hope while Frank deals with getting the States' help in lending us a hand in the development of research opportunities, Maria can deal with her previous boss, Croaker." Both Frank and Maria nodded, Frank with a smile and Maria contemplatively, already thinking of ways to improve the present system. "That leaves the most difficult Ministry of Agriculture and Relations, and we thought that as Douglas did such a good job in his post the last time around, we could reappoint him back. Arthur we hope you will assist Douglas with Muggle relations, and we wanted to ask Erin to assist with agricultural aspects and Remus has already agreed to assist with the relations with Centaurs, Werewolves and Vampires. Griphake the Strong of the Goblin's Grouphy clan has agreed to assist him on Goblin matters", Elphias spoke. "So who's going to be the Minister of Magic and his deputy?" James asked sharing a smile with Frank, "Is it Elphias or you, dad. Frank, Sirius & I have this wager. I bet that Elphias would be the Minister, despite him acting in the same capacity the last time but Frank & Sirius disagree. They said that you will be the minister whereas Elphias would act as your deputy." As James explained, Frank was looking keenly at the Trio of Albus, Charles and Elphias to see who was correct. Albus smiled at Charles and Elphias, Elphias and he nodded at Charles to go ahead and explain it his son and Frank. "Well son you're correct in that Elphias is the Minister but…." James didn't give his father the chance to complete his sentence as he began his celebrations and Frank let out a deep moan as his friend danced in front of him with his tongue out, teasing him. The newcomers were silent shocked at James's behaviour. To be fair they didn't really expected him to act like this in public but still… Amelia smiled at the duo. She was in her seventh year when the infamous Marauders entered Hogwarts but she was very familiar with their antics as both Lily and Alice often complained about their immaturity. Eve, Chloe and Maria exchanged smiles with eve giggling like a school girl as she saw Lily rolling her eyes and looking at heavens in a silent prayer, probably for granting her more patience. Lily after her usual 'Marauder Response' (rolling eyes and silent prayer) turned to look at Charles only for her to find the Elder foursome of Elphias, Charles Dedalus and Douglas smiling excited. "So Frank, seeing as James is in his zone", Douglas nodded at James who was still dancing with his head tilted back eyes closed, "Would you mind to share what the bet was?" Before Frank could answer Lily responded "Really Douglas! Don't encourage them. They are already immature enough to pass for a five year old, competing with the twins, Lee and Roger in a prank battle, with your encouragement they will deteriorate to the standard of three year olds and start corrupting Harry and Neville next." Instead of being mortified Lily's scolding enhanced their smiles to belly-laughs. "Soooo," Frank began casting a wary look at Lily, "we bet that if we were to be proved wrong the loser has to shave his head and for the next four gatherings at the Mansion he/they have to wear a dress." This information caused more laughter from the rest and another set of rolled eyes from Lily."HAhHAHAHa well Frank I think I have good news for you, at least half good news. Charles is not the deputy. We decided to appoint James as my deputy." The still dancing James stopped his dancing as Elphias mentioned good news for Frank and he was shocked. He was more worried about how to divide his bet rather than his future role ensuring more matured behaviour from him. His wife was also thinking along the same line as she said, "Well I am glad for it. With Frank as a Minister for E & R and James as Deputy Minister they will be forced to act more maturely. Sirius can't be helped I am afraid and Remus has always had a level head, so it will be nicer; certainly more peaceful around here." With Lily's statement the meeting broke and the group went back and re-joined the party that had spilled into the garden around the pond.

**Down at the Pond after the Meeting, Potter Mansion**

It was five in the evening and most of the M.U.P members had already left for their respective homes. Only the Potter family friends were still at Mansion stretched around the pond. Some, like the elder generation were lounging on the couches provided under the Cheery tree while the younger generation were running around with the children.

Fred and George approached the marauders with a proposal in mind

"Messrs' Prongs, Padfoot, Mooney and Erithos (Frank was a Robin- Erithacus Rubecola) we challenge you old folk for a Quidditch match." George followed Fred offer with a taunt,

"I mean if you are too afraid to play against us or don't want to be embarrassed in front of all your friends we would totally understand, but you have to concede your surrender to us and it will be our secret."

George's mocking produced the desired result in the Marauders; they looked outraged. Sirius jumped up from where he was lying on the grass, ready to take on these little pipsqueaks who dared challenge the Mighty and Unrivalled Marauders. James solemnly turned around to his friends

"I believe we are being challenged by these…. I don't know what these are. They don't even rate as amateurs. Though it is beneath us to play with such…ah players they have dared us, and Marauders don't take such blights on our sanctified reputation lightly."

Frank agreed, "Yes. So be prepared to be crushed boys. There will be no mercy, no prisoners."

Sirius joined the duo with his unique insight "You Squirts will look like Snevillus after a day working at the pet store."

"He means your mother won't recognise you after we are done with you. Better take back the challenge and get on your knees and hail loudly 'the Marauders are our Gods'. We might just give you respite and tease you for a week." Remus explained and taunted the seven youngsters assembled around the twins

. Lily, Maria and Alice who saw from afar the confrontation between the Marauders, new and Old just reached the congregation in time to hear Remus's counter-offer. Generally Remus was mild and genial, but mix the Marauders and their idiotic image issues and ego into it, he changes into the same as the rest, still better than the rest but miles away from his normal behaviour. Lily pointed that out, "Really Remus why do you get sucked into this weird vortex every time the Marauder issues plays by."

"I am sorry Lily but these little fries challenged the Marauders. And to make the matters worse they implied that we were scared of these weans. I can't let them talk like that about the Marauders." Remus stubbornly rebuked at Lily's admonishment.

Lily rolled her eyes and asked silently why the Gods of Wisdom abandoned Remus when he needed it and turned to Maria who was scolding lightly the young brood for goading the Marauders. They too were stubborn in their refusal to backdown. "Just because they can use their wands they always pranks us and last Sunday Uncle Sirius and Uncle James turned our hair blue for TWO hours. We want to humiliate them too. And in Quidditch they can't use magic, so we will crush them." Bill's emotional rant had every member of the Children's team nod and also made Lily glare at James and Sirius as the former hid from his wife's glare behind Sirius.

"Ya, We now have four players on the House teams. 'Dora is very good and I bet Fred and George will give Sirius a run for his money." Charlie explained further and more nods followed Charlie's statement. Alice and Maria sighed exasperatedly while Lily asked the twins if they wanted her to charm their brooms to fit them with pedals for supporting their legs. Lily, the resident Charms expert always charmed the brooms of the children when they played Quidditch for fun before, as the children were too young to balance themselves on the broom with just one hand to support them.

Fred and George, wanting to prove that they were in the league of their teammates, refused but good judgement prevailed in the form of Bill, their Captain who asked Lily to 'Please Charm' the brooms giving a stern look at Fred and George who were about to decline again. With Lily charming the brooms of the twins and 'Dora, She too asked her broom to be charmed as she wanted all the advantage they can get against their opponents, and the marauders going off to collect their rest of the team the atmosphere changed from pleasant to animated. Fifteen minutes later the two teams lined up in front of the audiences, in the middle of the Quidditch pitch.

As it was getting late in the evening the rules were fudged up a little. Only on hour was allotted for the game and team that scored more in that time was to be declared winner and the points for the capture of snitch was reduced to from one hundred and fifty to just fifty . Minerva McGonagall, a great Quidditch enthusiast was to be the referee. Filius Flitwick, the Hogwarts Charms Professor charmed the ground to minimise injuries with the help of Lily Potter. This match played to soothe jilted egos unknowingly paved way for the dawn of a new age in Quidditch History and this match found itself a place in Quidditch journals. Albus Dumbledore the Hogwarts Headmaster who was one of the audiences for the match and his Deputy, Minerva, enjoyed the match so much that they introduced a new 'timed' format of Quidditch the next academic year, after talking with John Granger who mentioned to them about the evolution of the game of Cricket from the Five day Tests to stimulating One day Matches just a decade ago.

**The Match **

Bill Weasley (13)

Teams – Juniors (New Cannons) - Chasers 'Dora Tonks (10)

Jack Bennett (13)

Keeper – Becky Bennett (13)

Beaters- Fred and George Weasley

Seeker- Charlie Weasley

James Potter

The Marauder's team – Chasers Luke Bennett

Arthur Weasley

Beaters – Sirius Black and Xeno Lovegood

Keeper - Remus Lupin

Seeker – Maria Lovegood (agreed after much begging and pleading of the Marauders)

Commentators of the Match – Lee Jordon and Albus Dumbledore

Referee for the Match – Minerva McGonagall

Score board Maintenance – Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood and Blake Potter

"We are here at Potter Mansion's Quidditch pitch to settle once and for all which generation are the better Quidditch players. The audiences have made themselves comfortable in their seats and the referee and players are making their way onto the pitch. The referee for the match is Minerva McGonagall and scorer is Blake assisted by 'bubbly' Luna and 'firecracker' Ginny. They had said that their loyalties are dived as they have players they like on both teams. The atmosphere is electrifying" Lee Jordan chattered on excitedly. Albus Dumbledore, his partner, was as calm as Lee was hyper. "Yes my dear boy it is indeed very exciting and I must say Minerva you look lovely in your referee uniform. You should do it more often." Albus commented calmly but his comments brought about gale of giggles and laughter as Minerva blushed, admonishing her mentor lightly with an 'ALBUS'. Lee giggled as he saw the generally severe professor blush. " He he hhe he. Well back to Quidditch, we have the brilliantly talented New Cannons on the right in bright purple robes while the feebly talented Marauder's team on the left in multi-coloured robes." Lee's comments brought boos from the marauders. "We will can the cannons", yelled by Sirius was replied with snickers from the Cannons supporters. "Well enough of this feud let's start the match shall we. Minerva is ready with the galleon for the toss. I think James won the toss as Bill called it wrong. And I think James has elected to start the attack with the Quaffle." Albus diverted the mocking battle between the two teams.

"James has the Quaffle and he is streaming down the pitch but he refusing to pass the Quaffle to anyone,. Oh dear I don't think his fellow chasers would appreciate it. He weaves through the cannons defence and has a shot at the right hoop."

"Yeah Go Becky. Thwarted by the Cannon's keeper. She guessed that Uncle James would aim for the right hoop; he always aims at the right hoop. How he scored so many goals for Gryffindor is a unexplainable." Lee's comments had James open mouthed, shocked that the kids knew of his fondness for aiming the right hoop. Lily and Dorea Potter both started laughing. James had always considered himself clever – faking to throw at the left but flinging right. But now the notion was destroyed by a six year old. If that wasn't hilarious then they couldn't guess what was. Charles and Augusta were however supporting their sons' so when James was flabbergasted at the statement, Charles cheered them on. "Come on James you can do this. They just know one of your shot and you have whole arsenal." Rejuvenated by his father's words James joined his fellow chasers trying to block the opposing chasers. But it was too late as Bill scored a goal after receiving a late pass from Jack. As it was a two against one attack within ten feet of the scoring hoops Remus was helpless. The goal erupted chaos among the grown-ups group. Sirius called in a time-out as Maria was laying into Luke Bennett instead of looking for the snitch; as did his wife, but as she was down on the ground he heard only Maria's objection.

"Luke Bennett! Never have I in my entire life seen such a deplorable thing. You attempted a Parkin's Pincer on a ten year old. Appalling. " Luke had attempted to make young 'Dora nervous by attacking her instead of marking Bill, his pre-selected target, failed. "Hey it didn't work did it? The little squirt pulled of Porkscoff Play. I didn't know she even knew of it much less pull it off perfectly and I didn't pull a Pincer. To pull it off we need three chasers and James was recovering from his shock." To say the least Maria was not impressed she spun around and came face to face with Sirius, the captain, and laid into him too.

"If any of you immature and idiotic men pull off something like it again I will never play with you again, got it?" Sirius nodded vigorously, Maria was their trump card and he didn't want to drive her away. Meanwhile Lee was heaving praises on 'Dora- "….was totally awesome. I have never seen a move like that. Tonks you rock and from now on I am your biggest fan." Dumbledore agreed. "It was indeed a brilliant move. Miss Tonks performed the manoeuvre to perfection. It's hard to believe that it's the same little girl who's clumsy on her feet." 'Dora struck her tongue out at Dumbledore as everyone laughed. 'Dora was famous/notorious for two things i) her very short temper and ii) her clumsiness. As the laughs were ending, Sirius signalled that they were ready to continue.

In the end after forty five minutes of agonizing pain Maria managed to save the marauders from blushes by stealing the snitch from Charlie at the last moment. The final result was an appalling 110 to 130 thanks to Maria whose snitch poaching awarded the Marauders fifty points when they were trailing by thirty points. The kids however were not disappointed; they knew that they had rocked the Marauders ship to the point of sinking it. If it wasn't for Maria Lovegood they would have won it. The marauders too knew this fact and this was the point of discussion in their next Marauders meeting. The next time the little monsters played they, the Marauders, will be prepared and win the game totally on their own merit. It's not that they didn't appreciate Maria's skill but the challenge issued was to them and in a way they had lost it.

A/N-

**Parkin's Pincer:** Two chasers close in on an opposing chaser on either side, while the third flies headlong towards him/her.

**Porksckoff Ploy:** The chaser carrying the quaffle flies upwards, leading opposing chasers to believe he/she is trying to escape them to score, but then throws the quaffle downwards to a fellow chaser waiting to catch it. Pinpoint timing is of the essence.

From Quidditch Through The Ages by JK Rowling

**Minister Of Magic **

Elphias Doge

**Deputy Minister **

James Potter

**Minister of Education and Research & Development**

Frank Longbottom

**Associated Minister**

Maria Lovegood

**Minister of Law** Enforcement

Amelia Bone

**Assisted by**

Alastor Moody

**Minister for Foreign** Affairs

Evey Bennett

**Assisted by**

Dewald Hoffmann

**Minister for Agriculture & Relations**

Douglas Watts

**Associate Minister for Agriculture**

Erin Griffiths

**Assisted by **

Arthur Weasley-Muggle Relations

Remus Lupin- Werewolves etc. Relations

Griphake the Strong – Goblins Relations

**Minister for Health**

Lily Potter nee Evans

**Associate Minister**

Shane O'Hanahan

**Minister of Finance**

Chloe Onorate

**Associate Minister**

Dedalus Diggle


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8 – Little Women**

**Lily Potter Year 1985**

Lily Potter was born Lily Marie Evans to two working parents, John Evans, a Barrister representing the Government and Cameroon Evans nee Strauss, a Professor of Biological Sciences with specialization in Darwin's Theory of Evolution, on January 30th 1960 at the Barnet General Hospital. She was the second child of the family after an elder daughter, Petunia Anne Evans, who was then five. Though her mother, Cameroon, wanted a son, due to complications during the third trimester the couple decided to stop their familial expansion with just two daughters. So Cameroon raised her younger daughter like she would a son. From a young age the Evans parents observed something different with their younger child in addition to her acting tom-boyishly. But instead of freaking about these discrepancies they responded healthily, by considering her as special. Though the Evans parents tried to not show any difference between their daughters, Petunia felt that her parents adored Lily while just loving her. Add to that Petunia inherited the genes from John's mother, Abigail Evans, not to mention her living with Abigail during her toddler years converted her dislike into fear and, though she didn't show often, hatred of her younger sibling. When Abigail found out that her only son wanted to marry one of the evolutionary nutcases, she hit the roof. "You're of your trolley youngman if you want to marry one of the devil's fawns", She declared. So Abigail and Cameroon were your typical mother and Daughter in laws, never Seeing Eye to eye in anything. Though to be fair to Cameroon she did try to be as cordial as possible with her deeply religious mother-in-law. But Abigail was set in her ways, so nothing her son's wife did could sway her. Which was why when Petunia was two years old, Abigail wanted her grand-daughter to stay with her, to teach her a bit of faith, leading her granddaughter away from the path of devil. John was literally between a rock and hard place, but after couple of weeks of pleading Cameroon agreed for Petunia to stay with her. She did go and visit her daughter every other day. During Petunia's stay with her, Abigail installed in her a deep magma of religious faith. Abigail entertained her grandchild with tales of miracles. As it would the tales included the description of devil, the witches, woman who made a deal with the devil to gain unnatural powers, which they used to control people to do their bidding. So when 'little red dragon' as her father would call Lily displayed her unnatural powers through incidents of accidental magic, it was clear to a young Petunia that her sister was a Witch, and was using her abnormal powers to sway her parents into liking her more. So since the time Lily was five, (Petunia ten) Petunia avoided her as much as she could get away without getting scolded by their parents. Lily didn't understand why her big sister 'Tuny avoided her and played with her only when their parents asked her to. Add to that the fact that she didn't understand why strange thing appeared to happen around her, she was left confused and more than a let hurt. This instead of deterring her only solidified her idea of self-worth. She wanted to be just like her mother when she grew up, Knowledgeable, Strong and Independent. She wanted to compete with boys and win. This drive of hers once had her fighting with her teacher. When she was in her Key stage 1, her class teacher conducted a running race among the boys during the Physical Education period. When Lily wanted to participate he asked her if 'she wouldn't prefer to sit out or play skipping'. Stubbornly Lily argued with her P.E.T (Physical Education Trainer) to let her participate and he tired of arguing with a tenacious five year old, gave in as it wasn't a big deal. An awfully pleased five year old girl went home with the small cup awarded to the winner.

So when Lily Evans entered the magical world it was like an atheist at the Church. She didn't have an easy time as she was not only declared as weird for her beliefs and behaviour but her friendship with the creepy Snape boy was also labelled abnormal., but she made three great friends in her first year, Alice Trumpleton, Maria Willowby and Dorcas Meadows, each from a different house, who made it all very easy for the career driven girl. She never compromised about her ideals and James was not an exception. James had to go through a major rehabilitation for his addiction of practical jokes and boasting before Lily Evans even looked at him, much less date him. Filius Flitwick publicly announced her as his best and most favourite student of all times. There was a battle between Horace Slughorn and Filius Flitwick on her choice of the subject for apprentice fellowship. When she decided to instead go into the healing profession they were disappointed and both of them tried 'together' to sway her to stay at Hogwarts. In her capacity as healer she worked under Aleksandr Rackharrow for just four months before he declared that he had nothing to teach her, which was a record for the fastest trainee to promote to full-scale healing position. Within a year working as a full-pledged Healer she was allotted her own team. So it was logical that when she won the election first time and was appointed the Minister for Health, she would bring the same intensity and proficiency into her job. She was the first among the Ministers to call dibs on the major funds allotment. The M.U.P had a policy of allotting at most Twenty percent of the budget to one ministry department each year depending on the policies the Minster for the department had pending. So for the governing year of 1984-'85 Ministry of Health was assigned a total of point Four Million Galleons. Lily in her capacity as the related Minister had introduced the bill for the construction of six other major Hospitals of the scale of St Mungo's in each of the regions except for Region 7. As the Minister of Magic, Elphias Doge on advice from Alice Longbottom, allowed press to a live action for the Senate's deliberation of bills and other issues the opposition also voted for the bill least they face a negative reaction from the electors. The bill not only expressed about the wish for six major hospitals but also a two healer small clinic booths in all the districts, to deal with minor problems, where the major hospitals weren't planned to be constructed. This construction of new hospitals not only improved the average health life but also created an influx of jobs; not just healing related but also menial jobs like maintenance and security. This indirectly helped the Aurors as the Witches and Wizards who took on thieving and other minor illegal activities were provided with the opportunity to find themselves legal and permanent jobs. There were also health cards issued to the under privileged and also to the junior Minister workers, which gave them a 25% discount for the cost of any health problems. The move was applauded not only in the nation but also received its fair share of press abroad forcing the governments to also introduce the same scheme. As the Health cards were issued through the partnership with Goblins any misuse of this opportunity was avoided. But the potential gold mine was when she with the last hundred thousand Galleons invited the premiere Healers in whole Europe who worked independently to form a Research group to find cure for some of the deadly magical maladies and some of the other, still then, incurables such as Lycanthropy and Billofmer's contamination with a promise of more funds. As this was a government project most of the researches Lily invited accepted her invitation and to add that a hundred thousand galleons in funding the contract was a done deal. The gold mine was in the sense that till then such researches were funded by individuals who couldn't afford this kind of money or couldn't draw the collection of premiere researches with just funds. One such individual was a Count Premsyl Klaus. He was a Millionaire landlord who owned most of the lands in Ukraine who had a ten year old grandson infected with Lycanthropy. The grandson was his only descendant and his infection happened when some werewolves attacked the Caravan of his son and his family. When he heard of the research team assembled by Lily Potter the new Minister for Health in United Kingdom he was ecstatic. He personally travelled to England to meet with Lily and brought along with him Ivan Ancic and Marin Antoniychuk, the two top researchers on Lycanthropy in Europe and his research team along with a transfer of one million Galleons into the Research programme. Other individuals and Philanthropists also sponsored the research team. It goes without saying that her actions gained the government public accolades.

While she was working her best as the Minister for Health she didn't neglect her precinct. She had a weekend out in her province where she delivered speeches all around the district promising an individual with criminal history in stealing and other activities involving stealth, like smuggling, to contact Amelia Bones, the Minister for Law Enforcement, as she was planning on expanding the department into an army of sorts with teams Specialized in stealth operations and Entry teams.

Though everyone in the nation and abroad were applauding her efforts as the Minister for Health and as Senator Lily was not satisfied with her life. She wanted to expand her family with another child of her own. It also helped her that Blake and Harry had asked for a baby Sister as birthday gift. Of course James jumped on the broom when the Lily proposed her desire. Ever since Harry was one year old James had pestered her with request for a little girl 'Just like her Mother'. So on September 1st, 1985 the gods granted the Potter males' wish for a girl. Alyson Dorea Potter 18inches and 6.6 kgs was born at the St Mungo's hospital with red hair and hazel eyes. She was an absolute hit with Blake, as was he with her. James Potter, the father, pouted when Blake refused to give the girl to him as he, James, was not careful and his, Blake's, sister would not be safe in his arms. The businessmen in the Knockturn alley declared a holiday that day and most of them could be seen visiting the young Potter with many gifts and best wishes.

MATERNITY WING, ST MUNGO'S ON SEPT. 1ST 1985

Lily was in labour for nearly 24 hours and money had changed hands already between Sirius and Charles, away from Dorea of course. James was a fusion of happiness and apprehension. He didn't like it when Lily was in pain but he was about to be the father of a girl and he just knew in his gut that she would be just like her mother. Harry had waited for a few hours, had gotten tired and slipped into a sleep. Remus had dropped him at the Burrow with Molly. Blake on the other hand refused to sleep or to be taken away to the Weasley's. He sat tense beside John often looking at his Other Grandfather for reassurance. John though experienced was not doing any better and Cameroon had to assure both John & Blake from time to time that Lily was alright. Both Cameroon and Dorea would visit Lily every couple of hours to comfort her. Finally after 27 hrs sounds of a girls crying alerted them of Little Ally's arrival. Blake had rushed in the moment the Healer said Lily was waiting for visitors and he was the first to cradle Allyson after her mother. Lily had Blake practice on how to hold a baby beforehand after seeing his enthusiasm. James mock argued with his nephew about stealing his daughter. Blake however refused to give Alyson to James "But you drop the Quaffle sometimes. What if you drop my sister too? She is so small and you are not careful." He argued with James and only when Lily gave her O.K after enjoying her husband being berated by a six year old, did he gave Alyson to him, keeping an eye on him all the time he had the new born. James mumbled about how he knew how to cradle and to be lectured on how to cradle a baby by the same infant whom he was the third person to hold. Blake's protectiveness over his 'sister' brought smiles among the assembled. Sirius Black though was outraged when the Potters appointed Frank as Alyson's Godfather. "Him" Sirius pointed at Frank incredulously, "you elected this idiot as her Godfather? I am stunned. Look at what an awesome godfather I made for Harry and you went with Lanky franky as her Godfather." Sirius's reactions brought more smiles around the room while Franks reply of 'You filthy mongrel, you promised not to use that again' Had everyone in stiches. When Harry was brought from the Burrow to meet with Alyson, he giggled saying 'My god she's so tiny' before cradling her with the help of Dorea and Blake.

**Alice Longbottom nee Trumpleton **

Alice Longbottom born Alice Trumpleton grew up with her Uncle on her mother side after the death of her parents. She was what the old Archaic magical community called Pureblood. She grew up alone as her uncle and aunt were childless and her first real friend was Lily Evans. She was sorted into Hufflepuff at Hogwarts as she was shy and it was Lily who brought her out of her shell. So it was through her that she became friends Maria Willowby and Dorcas Meadows from Ravenclaw and Slytherin. It was a friendship of a life time. And now she along with her friends was representing the public of the nation in the United Kingdom's Parliament. While Lily was busy reorganising the Magical world's Health plans, she too wasn't far behind. Alice was the first Senator to establish a primary school in their district where the kids were taught wand movement and maintenance with a prop besides Latin. It was an instant hit throughout the nation and pretty soon all the M.U.P governed districts had primary schools where there wasn't any other primary focus needing funds. These reforms in the magical education had her replace her husband as the joint head of Education and Research from 1988 to '92 along with Maria Lovegood. Alice also had felt a little vacancy in her personal life and like Lily wanted another child. In fact when Lily was in Labour Alice was also in Hospital having given birth to Jane Longbottom just a couple of days ago. She was staying at St Mungo's as the baby was born four weeks preterm and the healers wanted the baby and the mother to stay there in case they had any problems.

**December 1985, The Ambience, Barnet**

Alice, Lily and Cameroon were taking a breather from their little girls who were sleeping. The men along with John took the kids for a treat at ice-cream shop in Barnet. The topic of conversation was how their girls were both going to be Daddy's Princesses.

"James just loves Alyson. I mean he was not this protective when Harry was this age. He loves spending time with her." Lily giggled, "Of course he is always under the surveillance of Blake. For some reason Blake just doesn't trust James and James grumbles on about how humiliated he feels to be watched over by a eight year old. Harry loves the girl but gets bored with her easily. He wants her to play with him running around the ground kicking the ball. I think it will take another year or so for him to grasp the concept that she is too young to do that stuff." Alice agreed with her friend, "Yeah it's the same with Neville too. I tried to explain it but he wasn't sure. But last week I spied Blake sitting them down explaining how both Neville and Harry were also like that and it took them a couple of years to play outside. Neville, I think, didn't believe it and asked me later when he had started playing outside." Cameroon smiled at the young mother's dialogue. "Yeah it was the same with Petunia and Lily. She wanted to dress up Lily or brush her teeth. I remember her asking me why her baby sister didn't have to brush but she had to." The three mothers laughed at that. Lily after a moment wondered if Harry will soon ask why he had to go to the primary school while his sister gets to spend her time with Lily. "Blake didn't have that problem I guess" asked her mother which Lily answered in negative. "How dare you?" Lily asked mock outraged igniting a few more laughs, "No Blake loves the school. He just absorbs everything he is taught. I always hoped that Harry would take inspiration from him but alas he is more like his father in that issue. Has an attention span of a toddler, but not when it comes to Quidditch. He can explain all those crazy moves. I blame the Marauders for that. They used to take him to the games since he was two. All I can hope is that his behaviour changes when he attends Hogwarts." Alice nodded in agreement. Her Neville was also the same though thankfully he inherited her green thumb and love for the plants. So she comforted her best friend, "I think Harry still has to find his subject, I mean not everyone is drawn to knowledge seeking as Blake. Mercifully Neville found his early before my husband could corrupt him. It's the same with Harry too; once he does I am sure he will break some barriers in it. Afterall his parents were somewhat of prodigies in their subjects."

"What is James's favourite subject dear?" Cameroon asked her daughter.

"Transfiguration ", Lily's answer came back quickly, "Frank's too," Alice added, "but McGonagall always grumbled that she would rather teach hundred students challenged in Transfiguration than the Marauders." Lily and Alice giggled as they remembered Professor McGonagall's grave facial expression as she shared that with other ladies at one of their meeting's. James and Frank, mockingly, acted as if her words drove knives into their hearts while Sirius just sat there grinning like a village idiot.

"I love James. He is such a fun guy. He reminds me of an early John. In fact that's how we met. Now he is still fun but I do miss the younger version." Cameroon reminisced, a dreamy look on her face making her daughter and Alice giggle. "I feel like I am back at Hogwarts having a girls weekend, gossiping. That Maria was a wild cat, the way she used tease boys." Alice recalled making the classmates laugh.

**Maria Lovegood nee Willowby**

Maria Willowby had always been very vivacious girl. She was the only offspring of Unspeakables Barbara and Moses Willowby who went by the names Croaker and Bleach, and were considered as the frontrunners in the Department of Mysteries. In fact 'Croaker' was the youngest department head ever. Whereas Maria's father was more of Spell inventor, Barbara or 'Bleach' was more of a Potioneer. She had published more formulae for potions in a decade than anyone had in the past Century but always under different aliases. Maria had thus inherited both her parents love for Potions and Spell casting. Blue eyed and Blond haired Maria was always a pretty girl but her love for animals was what stood out the most, and that how she met with her future husband when she six and Xeno was ten. The Lovegoods moved next to Maia Willowby, Moses's older unmarried Sister who raised Maria for the most part at her Menagerie outside Ottery St Catchpole, and Xeno Lovegood used to be a constant visitor at the Menagerie. From early childhood Xeno loved animals, infact his mother used to complain to anyone she talked to that their house was less of a home and more a zoo. The two of them, Maria & Xeno, used to help Maia Willowby in taking care of the animals, the small ones. It was this love for all things live that brought them to marry each other despite the overwhelming differences in their personalities and they passed on the trait to 'Little Luna'.

When Maria Willowby attended Hogwarts Maia had to get special permission from Albus Dumbledore as little Maria wanted to take both her pets, Jack- a Crup and Tom- a Kneazle, with her to Hogwarts and the school rules state that each student was only allowed one pet. Dumbledore looked at the little blond sweetheart who was looking at him with big blue eyes adorning a pup dog look and nodded his approval. Maria hugged the Headmaster crying out her thanks before rushing off to the fireplace to share the good news with her friends, Tom and Jack. At Hogwarts, Jack the Crup used to rush off into the forest for hunting, while Tom used to hang around Maria during the lunch and Dinner breaks, always looking out for his friend. As a matter of fact it was due to Tom that Maria made her first friend among her year-mates, one Lily Evans. AS Lily was a cat person, when she saw the cute little blue furred Kneazle in the GreatHall, she let out a scream of delight before dropping to her knees petting the Magical cat. As Tom purred in delight as the red haired girl scratched all the right places Maria and Lily struck up a conversation which began their journey as friends. Soon they added Alice Trumpleton, a shy Hufflepuff and Dorcas Meadows, a sly Slytherin to their duo. Lily had named the group 'the Little Women'.

When Albus Dumbledore and Charles Potter came to her with the proposal of introducing ten or so women into their Party folds as possible candidates to run for office she wasn't hesitant, she wanted to campaign and Xeno supported her decision without any hesitance. The problem she had was getting an O.K from her boss, her father. The two of them had teamed up on a project and were close to the answer and Moses or more appropriately Croaker was reluctant to let her go. His wife's, Barbara's, threat of switching his 'Phallus' with that of a fairy and Maria's promise that she would make time to work on it with him, convinced Croaker to let Maria of her contract with the Unspeakables. So when Charles, Dorea, Elphias and Dumbledore were planning the cabinet Ministry it didn't require any great deliberation to conclude that Maria was to be associated with the research Department. As the first years major funds were covetously congested by Lily, Maria shifted her focus to making deals with United States Research Division on sending Unspeakables from United Kingdom to study the workings of their counterparts in the states. At last she with the help of Dewald, assistant to the Foreign Affairs Minister, managed to close the deal in return for lifting the ban on trade of some regulated items involving Charmed Muggle goods. What the States Foreign Minister didn't know was that the M.U.P Government were in the process of lifting the ban after some adjustments in their Laws of Charming Muggle items. With the Negotiation consuming just three weeks instead of Maria's upward estimate of 'six months or so', she was free to govern her constituency and at the same time assist her father with their research on 'Lumos Extremous' which would allow the Ministry to erect Poles of Lamps similar to the street lamps around the Magical alleys and also around Magical Neighbourhood & homes. If the father and Daughter duo were to succeed it would cut the cost of an average household by fifteen percent they spend on Oil and the government by about 6%. The twosome of Unspeakables managed to solve it one week after Alyson Potter's birthday and by the end of that month the ministry had installed the lamps to hold the spell around the nation. They also had orders from nearly every household in the nation for installation of these lamps in their homes. The Ministry announced that for installation of the lights in every ménage would add some tax for the number of recharge spelled. The Minister for Finance, Chloe Onorate, adjusted the taxation in such a way that the money required for the salary of employees in the new Section of Maintenance Department could be paid through by the taxes paid plus some, and at the same time still provide reasonable savings from the conversion of Oil Lamps to the Modern Charmed lamps. The invention in addition to being a ground breaking occurrence in development, also proved to be an effective bargain tool for the negotiations among the states of Europe for the initiation of European Union, as the Patent money for the usage of the spell could be saved if the Nation agreed to sign in the deal for the Union as it then became the goods developed by one of its state.

**Dorcas Davies nee Meadows **

The Meadows were a wealthy Irish family who moved to England five generations ago after Trent Meadows the then elder family tried to take over government and the Meadows name was a taboo. They paid nearly all their wealth to reconstruct every aspect of life Trent destroyed. Dorcas was only child of Thinus and Wilma Meadows who ran a Restaurant in London. As a child Dorcas was taught about the family history by her parents. It had become a sort of family tradition, educating the new generation of their vile ancestor and to remember to always take account the repercussions of their each and every action. So Dorcas was always mild mannered kind and calculative. Because she acted much older than her age she didn't have any friends while she was growing up. When she arrived at Hogwarts she was nicknamed the Ice Queen by her fellow dorm mates in Slytherin due to her disinclination for making friends. It was only when she paired up in the Potions class with Lily Evans that she finally found a friend. Lily then introduced her to Maria Willowby, the wild girl and Alice Trumpleton, the shy one. It was a constant battle of reasonable actions and Wild adventures in the group. Maria was always the advocate for the wild side, wanting to go into the Forbidden Forest, Date boys or Sneak out at night just to wander around. Though Maria had to battle mostly against 1:3 she would more often than not manage to convince Alice and Lily. Dorcas was the only one Maria couldn't convince until it came to Leland Davies. When Leland asked Dorcas out on a date in their sixth year it was Maria who pushed her to accept his proposal. Maria always says 'the one time you listened to my advice you scored yourself a keeper. If only you had listened to me more you could have had more fun in the seven years we were at Hogwarts.'

When Charles proposed that she run for the senate she was very hesitant. She didn't want to have too much power incase her vile ancestry flamed its ugly head into her level minded personality. Only after Leland and Wilma sat down with her assuring her that she had too much good in her for her to turn loathsome overnight. After the unexpected turn of event that saw her elected as Senator without an opposition she refused to accept any higher position in the government and spent most of her time overseeing Lily's Plans along with governing her precinct. Her precinct was mostly peaceful with hardly any issues that demanded her attention, so governing it was very simple. She had almost all the money allotted for developing her district untouched so she used it in the primary school and Hospital. So among all the Primary Schools and the six other major hospitals the ones in South west corner of England were by far the best. The regional Major Hospital- Gaia Mother's Clinic was even grandeur than St Mungo's. Due to her wit and her experience as a Magical barrister, the job she had after graduating from Hogwarts, she was appointed lead negotiator, assisting Evey Bennett and Dewald Hoffmann, for the European Union proposal. The smaller countries such as Portugal, Greece, Iceland Switzerland, Austria, and Bulgaria etc. jumped into the Union without much deliberation but major nations like France, Spain and Germany along with a few others wanted more details and quite a few boons to go along. All in all a total of 24 nations signed the Union agreement deal. Italy was adamant of not joining the union and only their ally, Spain's plan of entering kept them interested. Dorcas estimated that it would take them another year or so to come down from the mighty tree and see that it was in overall a beneficial union for all included. However Norway Sweden and Finland was another issue. Though the three nations wanted in on the Union, there were some misunderstandings between the three nations and until they were settled the other nations didn't want them signing the deal as the other nations didn't want their (The 3 nation's) internal matter spread among the union, dividing it.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9 – Hi, I am Hermione Granger**

**December, 1985**

Blake Potter the elder grandson of Charles and Dorea Potter had been attending the school for gifted since last year's January, on the insistence from John and Cameroon Evans his surrogate mother's parents and he loved it. He would always wake up early, at five in the morning do some meditation techniques that his grand mum, Cameroon Evans, followed and he would revise the last day's lessons and cast a cursory glance over the day's lesson plans. For the last eighteen months there was no change in his morning routine but for the past six months he would have his breakfast early, at about six a.m. and would then rush off to the Ambience, the Evans house, through the floo. This haste in the early exit from the Potter House when only Lily and Dorea got up was not all School related but had to do with his 'grandfather' John Evans. If anyone would like to right memoirs of John they would have to lie to make him look good. He was a straight arrow like Barrister and later on Judge whom the Bobbies loved to have him prosecute the blaggers or scum they caught. He was also any outstanding citizen, always donating to the any well-meaning causes but he had two weaknesses that drove his wife bonkers sometimes –i) Sports, Football, cricket, Tennis….you name it, he watched it and the more annoying number ii)… Cars. In general he kept his obsession for cars to a minimum. Only collecting car models (he had an upwards of twenty four hundred car models) but in May '85 he finally took his mania to the ultimate step, he bought a 1926 Morris Cowley, a four seat tourer for **1000 pounds only**. He would laugh excitedly whenever he talked about it, a Cheap buy, he would say, the previous owner didn't know what he was doing. His Wife, Cameroon, though had another take, 'I will say he knew what he was doing. He sold the trash to you for 1000 pounds. Just agree John you got an absolute trash for 1000 quid. It's cheap no doubt but was it a wise one if the car didn't function. But John didn't give up on his baby. Every morning he would don his garage clothes and enter the holly garage and start tinkering with the Crown of his Collection. John though wasn't alone in the garage; he had an audience in the form of young Blake. It all started on May 28th '85 one week after John bought the car.

**Sunday, May 28****th**** '85, 8 a.m.**

Cameroon was up early as her husband was too excited to work on the car to sleep, and in his enthusiasm woke her too with his braying of 'a Hard day's Night' by his favourite band, the Beatles. Grumbling at her husband she woke up. And as she was up anyway she thought 'I might as well start my day', so she began her meditation exercise after walking around the Football ground her husband had built for their grandsons, thrice. By the time she completed her usual activities leisurely, it was quarter to eight and as she knew Lily and her family were visiting she started making breakfast for the hungry hoard. She was just about to finish making toast and bacon when two small sized missiles rocketed out of the fireplace shouting for their grandfather. Her husband and her Grandchildren had a routine when the Potter visited. At first they watched the Star Wars, AGAIN and then they went into the grounds where her husband pushed their grandchildren on the swings until the breakfast bell was rung or he collapsed in the porch tired from his job. At the Ambience the breakfast was usually served at 9 in the morning and the Potters arrived at eight so that gave the kids one hour to run their grandfather rugged. Her husband usually tried to make the kids stay in the movie room but after, at most, half an hour the kids dragged him to the swings. So after a few months of this torture John had begged her to serve the breakfast early. Cameroon who loved her husband very much agreed to do so but only after squeezing a trip to Greece as payment. Now the breakfast would be over before eight but the kids still wanted to play so after Cameroon told them about John's whereabouts they rushed off to terrorise their victim. The kids rushed outside to drag their grandfather out for their swinging time, as a very pregnant Lily flooed out with James helping her. Cameroon greeted her daughter and helped James in leading her to the sofa.

"**How are you dear? You too James, how are you holding up with her mood swings?"** Cameroon greeted her daughter & son in law kissing their cheeks.

"**Well enough mum. But James is always hovering over me, and both Charles and Him forbade me from working anymore. It's driving me crazy, sitting at home and doing nothing. And what do you mean 'How are you holding with mood swings?'? I am the one carrying a baby here and he receives the welfare questions? That too from my mum, it's not very fair. And why didn't dad be here when he knew I would be here now? And where did the kids run off to when I told them to stick around and not make any trouble?"** Lily managed to complain on nearly everyone in just one go and this caused the Mother and Son in law pair to exchange exasperated look, rolling their eyes. **"And I saw that you too."** Lily snapped making them sober up their facial features. Just then Harry came running back, and hugged Cameroon's legs. Looking up he said, "**Grand mum, grandfather won't come out from under the car to play with us. You tell him to play with us na?"**

"**Well hello to you too young man. So only when your playmate- grandfather doesn't come out to play do you remember me?"** Harry looked down, blushing red, as his grandmum mock scolded him and mumbled out a tiny 'Sorry'. Cameroon smiled down at her grandson and lifted him into her arms and kissed his cheeks and tickling him. Harry squirmed in her arms rubbing away at his cheek**, "Grandmum no, I am big boy now, you can't kiss me on the cheeks. It's not how grownup boys are supposed to did by."** Harry looked incredulously at Cameroon shocked she wouldn't know such a small detail. He looked so cute while lecturing her that Cameroon could help but scoop down kissing him again causing Harry to dodge the attack and hide behind his mother, triggering his parents to join his grandmum's mirth.

Still laughing at her son's definition of how grandparents are supposed to act around their grandchild who was a big boy, she turned to face her mother, who too was laughing her eyes still fixed on Harry, she asked, **"So mother, what's dad doing in the garage? Is there any problem with either Fords?"** Seeing her mother's exasperated expression she guessed what the problem was. "**He bought an old car didn't he? I thought we managed to convince him not to buy the last time he wanted one."** Cameroon just rolled her eyes, **"Yeah, last time we had two marriages yet to plan and pay for so, he was convinced. But now both of you are married to guys with stable jobs, well in your case a wealthy & handsome youngman"** Cameroon winked at James who mocking swelled up with pride, **"so he argued that he had a thousand pounds to spend on junk."**

"**Now dear, I have said to you many times this week, the Car isn't junk. It's a beauty."** John Evans entered the living room with his hand on Blake's shoulder just in time to hear his wife abuse his little darling. **"Well John I too have said as many times as you that if a thing can't function for something it's built then it qualifies as Junk."** John just rolled his eyes at his wife, hugging his little girl. **"So how are my girls?"** he asked Lily who sighed with exasperation, **"Dad we don't know if it's a girl. And don't listen to James. He is just wishing for a girl so he can spoil her."**

"**Well then pumpkin it's good that I didn't listen to him. That information was provided by my Grandson here"** John said ruffling Blake's hair. Blake just looked innocently as Lily mocking glared at him, making her smile and to ruffle his hair too lovingly.

**Back to December, '85 **

So from that Sunday Blake always arrived early for school and would religiously attend John's sessions in the garage, watching John work on the car, helping him handing him the right tools. And after the school hours he would try to read one of the self-help books on car repair that John bought. Most of the analyses didn't make any sense to the eight year old, but he never gave up. It was here that Blake fell in love with the machine engineering. At the beginning Lily would walk Blake to her parents' house but now as she was the Minister for Health, she was too busy and after Alyson was born, minding the girl and catering to her needs as well as work left her too knackered to continue this regime. Blake didn't like that he got to spend less time with Lily-mum and more so because she would take little Aly with her and would only return after six in the evening. This seriously cut back Blake's time with his sister. When Lily was on healers order for resting before & after Alyson's birth, Blake was always with Lily helping her with anything and would distract Alyson by entertaining her if Lily needed to rest. James joked with his friends that it was fortunate that Blake was just a kid otherwise Aly would call him papa and forget about James altogether. James fears were not unfounded as later on when Aly started to talk the words she spoke after mum were 'ake' and 'ary', which Blake coached her to speak. It took James a week after he gave up trying to make his daughter to call him 'pa or da' to beg Blake and Harry to coaching Alyson to call James Pa.

**The Ambience, June 1986 – Alyson's first words week **

"**Come on kids please, I am begging you coach her to say pa or da."** James was on his knees in front of a grave looking Blake and Harry, while Lily was laughing from her throne of a couch and John & Cameroon watched bemused with a smiling Alyson in their arms. John sloped to the side, his mouth near his daughter's ear, whispered **"Honey why is he begging the kids? Why can't he just try to cox Aly to do it?"** Hearing her husband's question, Cameroon too leaned to hear the answer as the question was also on her mind. Lily, still giggling whispered back "**The kids have coached Aly to just giggle and kiss James when he asked her to call him da or pa. So any one saying pa has her giggle and da has her kissing the person."** Lily went into another bout of giggles as she finished her answer. John just raised an eyebrow at his daughter, amazed at his grandchildren, all three of them for what they had accomplished. Cameroon who also started chuckling wanted to test the theory. She raised Aly to her eye level and cooed, "Aly honey pa for me darling." As soon as little Aly heard the word she gave her grandmum a heart melting smile that caused her grandfather to kidnap her from Cameroon and ask "Oh my sweet little Princess. You're so precious. Can you da me sweetums?" And Aly responded as her brothers had coached her. John received a big sloppy kiss accompanied with more giggles from Alyson. And to James's disgruntlement his in-laws traded Aly to and fro, using the code words to collect kisses from her. Finally Lily took pity on her husband and lawyered his case with the children **"I think he had suffered enough kids tell him what you taught Aly as she should call him."** Blake deflated at her words but Harry though was stubborn, **"But mum they pranked us daily for three days."** **"Sssh, Sssh, I know."** Lily comforted her son, **"I am not saying that you tell him the word for free. You can demand anything of him and he will give it to you."** James who was smiling when Lily started vouching for him suddenly looked terrified at his wife's backstabbing. Lily just smiled charmingly at him in response to his gawk of betrayal. So after a few moments of deliberation Blake and Harry decided that James was to promise them three wishes EACH in return for the word. James nodded his agreement, too excited to care for latter repercussions. So Harry went near his sister and asked her **"Hey Aly where is POP? Show us where POP is."** Aly smiled at her brother and crawled to James and sat on his lap. James took her into his arms smothering her with kisses in his happiness. Later on James also threw an impromptu party at the Potter Mansion in celebration, much to Lily's amusement.

**Back to the Present**

The only time Blake had to be dragged to school was the three months Lily stayed at home after Aly's birth, and once Lily started to take Alyson with her to the ministry Blake was again enthusiastic about going to the School. Dorea used to tease her grandson that he cared only for Alyson and now that she was away he didn't want to stay at the Potter Mansion much to his Chagrin.

**Martin's School for the Gifted **

Callum Martin got his Ph.D. in Child Cognitive Psychology under Ulric Neisser at the Cornell University. Callum was one of the first students under Neisser to study the new branch of Science. After receiving his doctoral degree summa cum laude, he returned back to Barnet where he established Britain's first Special School for gifted Children. Using his thesis for doctoral degree as the pillar he created a curriculum for the development of young geniuses. In his eight years of this academic life he had never encountered someone such as Blake Potter. It was not that Blake was more of prodigy than any other child he had seen; it was his enormous amount of concentration and drive that made the Potter kid unique. Generally, no matter how exceptional kids were, their concentration span was not large. It varied from child to child. It was why his school had a one on one interaction with the kids; it helped that such brilliant young minds were a scarce product. The length of time the kids could thoroughly concentrate ranged from 20-30 minutes for five year olds and gradually improved with age. Blake, who was six at the time he joined, could concentrate for the whole three hours of the School hours. He not only listened for those hours but also could recall everything he was taught with absolute precision. So Callum kept a very close eye on him and his progress. Blake's favourite subject was Mathematics and he was very inquisitive regarding it. He paid good enough attention when he was taught other subject but was at a totally different level in the hour he was taught Maths. But six months ago he had new muse. He would seek out among his teachers for anyone with some knowledge in the working of a car engine. Mr. Franklin Kales, the art teacher heard of Blake's obsession with cars and offered his services for a half an hour every day. The Kales' family business was Automaintenance, so Franklin was quite knowledgeable. At first Kales was hesitant as he was sure the subject would be above the comprehension of an eight year old, but after Callum's suggestion to go ahead, he tried to do so. In the beginning it was as Franklin figured but for the last fifteen days Blake started to grasp the concepts behind the working mechanics, only a little but it was more than he had ever hoped. As Blake showed a marked improvement, Callum decided to rearrange Blake's class schedule and it was due to this change that Callum's two special students came into contact with each other.

**Fifteen days Ago **

Blake was in the middle of his class with Mr. Franklin when Frank's wife who had just finished her class with her student and came over to her husband to see if he was finished so they could leave together. Unknown to her the student followed the teacher as her grandparents had said that they might be late that afternoon to pick her up. As Kales finished his class, he asked his student to briefly explain what he understood and as Blake was explaining what he understood, the little girl that followed her teacher into the class interrupted the flow.

"**The Cycle begins at Top Dead Centre, which is the position of the piston in which it is the nearest or farthest to the Crank. A Crank is.."** A girl's voice broke into his explanation, "**How come it's called the same name when it is nearest and farthest? Would it be easier to remember if the two positions have different names?"** Surprised, all present looked at the girl with bush brown hair who tried to shrink away as their collective gazes fell upon her. As Franklin opened his mouth to explain Callum signalled him not to, nodding his head at Blake. He wanted Blake to explain the question to the girl to see how dealt with an enquiry. He also had a second agenda for it. The young girl had serious self-image issues and lacked self-confidence when it came to dealing with children her own age. So she had problems in creating new bonds of friendship. Blake on the other hand was a charmer when it came to making new friends, and Callum hoped that Blake could rope in the friendless granddaughter of his Great Aunt Martha. Blake, as his headmaster had hoped, drew the young girl into his ring of friends. As they shared the same intellectual appetite they soon became best of friends despite their age difference. It also made a pleasant change for the young girl to have someone of her age who knew more than her. She was also coached by her new friend on how to ease her 'know it all' behaviour around others, which was a total put off for making friends at any age.

**The Ambience, Dusk on 20****th****, 1985 **

Lily flooed into her parent's house, exhausted. It was a forgettable day at the Office and she dropped off Alyson at the Mansion before coming to the Ambience. It took her nearly a whole day to sort out the problem between the Aurors and some merchants in the Alley. The Aurors had a lead that some stolen items were being sold at one of the shops. When they went in to the neighbourhood the merchant union wouldn't allow the Aurors in as they felt insulted and the aurors were showing biased prejudgement as the alley had shady history. So Lily had to go there and smooth things down before a riot ensued. It was a tiresome experience and so Lily crashed into the couch beside her mother after flooing into the house.

"**You looked dead on your feet honey. Had a rough day at the Office, did you?"** Lily sighed as her mother massaged her scalp as she asked the question

. **"Why did you let me contest for the senate mother? You should have stopped me."**

Cameroon laughed slightly at her daughter's complaint. Lily tried to pout, before failing and also smiling**. "So where are the young demons?"** Lily asked peering around, looking for the kids.

"**Oh, they went out with their grandfather for an impromptu celebration after English teams victory."** Cameroon's answer had Lily sighing**. "There my husband and father in law are trying to make them Quidditch fan, and here my father is turning them into barmy Cricket & Football fans. I hope that Harry, and later Aly, find some sort of passion in their studies as well. So how was your day with Harry? He didn't make any mischief after Blake went for school, I hope?"** Her daughter query had Cameroon rolling her eyes exasperated, **"Lily honey we've raised two daughters who spat fire when they talked to each other without any lasting physical damages, I think it's safe to say we can manage a five year old for a couple of hours. Harry is an angel compared to 'Tunia and you, and when Blake is around they only need some place to play around which thanks to your dad they have plenty. So no problem with Harry, but there was an incident at the School." **

Lily was shocked. Blake was an easy going kid and always managed make friends everywhere he goes**. "Blake? Blake caused an incident?"** Lily asked stunned. In response her mother smiled reassuringly **"I didn't say he was the cause behind the episode, did I? You know the new girl that Blake became friends with, she was the cause for the event. As you know, her grandparents and we chat for some time while we waited for the school to end. They looked nervous today so we asked them if something was wrong and it was,"**

"**Oh my god! Did something happen to their parents?" **Lily interrupted her mother distraught.

"**Oh god no Lily! And what an awful thing to think. It's nothing that bad. It seems their granddaughter had pet cat, Puss, and it died today in an accident. They were afraid how she would react to that news" **, Cameroon explained. Lily was sympathetic as she too experienced the death of pet when she was a girl.

"**Yeah,"** Cameroon nodded sadly, **"the girl was devastated and then she did something completely unexpected with flower she had in her hand."** Lily realized what it was. Shocked she asked **"She performed accidental magic, didn't she? Mum you didn't say anything, did you?"** Lily watched as her mother's expression remained stoic, and She gasped, **"You did, didn't you?"** she asked rhetorically but her mother nodded her agreement with her deduction. "**Mum you shouldn't have. You know it's against the law to do so."** Cameroon though was not only impenitent for her actions but scolded her daughter in reverse, "**Lily Marie, don't feed me that wizarding nonsense. You might have forgotten what it was like when you were a kid performing all those accidental magic but we remember. You used to cry in frustration and we, we didn't have any answer. I am not going to put another little girl and her family through that if it is in my power to comfort them. We talked with those Memory swapping guys so you might want to straighten out somethings tomorrow. We explained somethings to the Parkers but also invited them to come to our house with their daughter and son in law, so James and you can explain to them. They will come here on the 26****th**** as the Parkers daughter, Emma and son in law, Dan, will be visiting the Parkers for the holidays. That's settled then?"** Lily dumbly nodded her head. Cameroon Evans was generally quite docile and easy going lady, but when she made a decision you only had one choice –Just follow her tacitly. And Lily, of all people, knew this very well. It was one of the main reasons why her sister was still alive. Otherwise she, Lily, would have killed her the first time 'Tuny called her vile names. Now she had to think about how to smooth some ruffled feathers of the Obliviators. The day just kept getting better every second.

**Boxing Day – 26****th**** December 1985, the Ambience **

John Evans and the Kids were trying to teach a frustrated James how to hold a Cricket bat correctly and play the ball being bowled by Blake. The Drama was going on for an hour and James was wishing the Parkers would come quickly and free him from this baffling sport. In the hour his torturers had captured him, he was declared something called 'OUT' twenty five times, which by the looks on their faces was not something good. His wife was sitting in the Porch with her mother and 'Sister' enjoying his misery. He could hear her laughter all the way from the lounge to the centre of the ground, and it wasn't helping. As he was about to throw in the proverbial towel and make run for the fireplace, he heard the sound of a car's horn. He turned around and saw a Ford Escort Mark III slowing down after the turn and coming to a complete stop in front of the gate. Blake ran off shouting 'I'll open it, I'll open it' with Harry and Dudley running after him as competition.

A few minutes later the adults all settled down in the porch and the boys were running back from the gate. The Little girl was confused at the odd expressions on Lily's and Petunia's faces, as both were looking at her. Lily had a curious look while Petunia was a hybrid between jealousy and disdain concealed behind an unsuccessful neutral expression.

"**Hello Sweetie, what's your name?"** Lily asked the brow haired girl with slightly large front teeth. It was a gurgling Alyson in Lily's arms more than anything else that made the girl come forward.

"**Hi",** the girl mumbled, her eyes still on Alyson, **"I am Hermione Granger. Is this Alyson? Blake tells all of us at School about her." **

Lily and James smiled at that before James replied, **"Yes, this is Aly. Come closer, it's O.K.**" Hermione skulked forward and touched the little baby who was looking at her with her wide hazel eyes. Alyson smiled as Hermione with her touch tickled her. With that smile Hermione lost all her caution against the strangers and started cooing happily as Alyson responded with gurgling noises. Just then Blake leading the boys returned

"**Didn't I tell you My Sister is beautiful"** Blake's question drew Hermione's gaze from the baby towards him. She nodded happily and gave a hug to Blake and introduced her first & best friend to her parents. After the introductions, Emma Granger, ever the practical women, went directly to the bedrock of the visit.

"**So my parents told me that you will explain what happens with our Hermione. If you don't mind, we would really like to hear an explanation as we have no words or theories with which we can comfort our daughter with when such events happen."**

Lily nodded her head solemnly, **"Yes we understand your problem, infact my parents had to face the same problem. What your daughter performs is true Magic, not the Magician stuff. "**

The Parkers and Grangers just looked dubious, so Cameroon tried to assure them that it wasn't a prank.

"**Yes I had that same reaction the first time the Professor from school told me that, but just think about all the unexplainable events that happened around Hermione. Those bouts of strange incidents tend to happen when the child feels any strong emotion, generally a negative one like anger or grief, like when you broke to her about her cat's death."** She turned around to her daughter and nodded, "**I think it is better if you showed them some spells. I mean we weren't swayed until Professor McGonagall performed some spells."**

Lily agreed and was about to draw her wand out when James laid her arm on her, stopping her in mid drawl. When she looked questioningly at him he explained grinning, **"I think I can make them accept the fact easily."** Lily just rolled her eyes grasping his point before she huffed playfully, **"You just want to flaunt Prongs around."**

John and Cameroon too understood what the couple were talking about. While Cameroon laughed, John, enthusiastic, spun around to their guests who were watching the exchange bemused**, "David you're gonna love it, you too Martha. It's simply amazing."**

James got up from his chair, walking down to the garden in front of the house. Harry who was talking with Dudley, Hermione and Blake saw his father get up and perform his ritual before he changed. He let out an excited whoop and ran nearer to his dad to get a better look with Dudley lagging behind him. Blake smiled at his brother and whispered to a perplexed Hermione to follow him to see some Magic. Hermione, who thought that it was like the Magician's magic, trailed after the brothers.

James who saw his son and Dudley run up to the adults smiled at the boys giving them a large wink. And then in flash many things seemed to happen. Emma Granger and Martha Rogers were staring at the place where James was a moment ago, popeyed and forgot to breathe, while their husbands stood up with hands on their hearts, breathing hard. Hermione however let out a loud eeep before turning around to her first friend, wonder in her eyes, '**Is this the magic you were talking about?"** when Blake smiling just nodded she jumped a few times, excited, "**You mean I can do this too?" **Blake tried to rein her fervent passion before it got out of hand, **"Yes but it's not easy, and it is very dangerous to attempt. In fact only a handful people ever accomplished it and one needs to learn a lot before we even have the knowledge, and then it should be learnt under supervision." **Blake wasn't sure if she heard anything as she just kept staring at Prongs as he carried a chortling Harry on his back. From then on it was easy to sway Hermione's family to believe about Magic and the society weaved around it. Afterall it was very hard to refute what they had witnessed.

After a few minutes of clarifying the doubts of the Grangers and Parkers, Lily was interrupted by an excited & bouncing Blake, **"Can I give it to her now Lily-mum? Can I Can I?"** Lily smiled at her surrogate son and nodded her approval. Blake hugged her and rushed off to Harry, Dudley and his bedroom and before anyone of the adults could even take their eyes off the entrance to the room he ran back with a basket in his hands. He beckoned Harry and Dudley to him as he stood before Hermione, **"Hermione, this is gift from us. Happy Christmas."** Hermione looked at her parents to make sure they approved, and they smiled hesitantly. John seeing the response, tried to convince the guests to let their girl accept the gift. **"Blake wanted to cheer her up as he knew she lost her pet. He also bought Harry and Dudley pets for presents, now that they are big enough to care for the animals themselves."** Harry heard his grandfather's words and rushed to their room, Dudley following him. They were back with a cutest looking pug in Dudley's arms and a snowy feathered Eagle Owl in Harry's arms. **"Look Hermione Blake got us these for us. Mine is Hedwig and Dudley's friend is Skywalker. Come on open yours'."** Seeing the animals Hermione gave an excited and loud giggle, removed the blanket on the basket to see an Orange ball of fur. On being disturbed from its sleep, the animal turned his squashed and Grumpy face towards the offender only to find the smiling face of a girl. It was love at first sight for the girl and the half Kneazle. Hermione happily lifted the cat and snuggled into him before running to her parents and Grandparents to show her gorgeous new pet.

Emma smiled at her daughter's happy face and asked, **"So Mione dear what are you gonna name your new friend?"** Hermione paused her forehead scrunched thinking of a name when Blake interrupted, **"He has a name. It's Crookshanks."**

"**Crookshanks?"** The cat looked up, purring happily, to face the smiling girl, **"It's perfect. Thanks Blake."** With that Hermione hugged Blake and the kids ran off to play with their pets as the adults watched them adoringly for some time before falling back into the question - answer session.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10 – Of Hogwarts Tour & Dilemmas**

**Year 1988 – The Year of Dilemma**

**Lucius Malfoy Vs Bellatrix Lestrange – Tom Riddle/ Salazar Gaunt's Dilemma**

The year of 1988 could be considered the year of dilemma for Tom Marvolo Riddle alias Salazar Marvolo Gaunt, because in June that year after the N.E.W.T exams, the Sixth term elections of the United Kingdom Magical Province left the W.M.P, of which he was the head, divided between two factions, always at each other's throats. One faction, led by Lucius Malfoy, argued that they could still win enough seats to form a government with a bit of cunning, ruffling the feathers of their Magical brethren. The other faction had hard-core pureblooded elite such as Bellatrix Lestrange, the Carrows and the Blacks, who advocated that they lead a front on assault against the administration, snatching the power from their unworthy and tainting hands. Lucius's ploy was to wait till the next elections and have some muggle mercenaries to attack few important Magical landmarks, destroying them, which would instil fear among the majority of the electors against the muggles. And later when the M.U.P tried to advocate not to fall into irrational fear against the muggles, the W.M.P can crucify their opposition. The hard-core fascists on the other hand were outraged at the idea of using muggles to further their agenda. They saw it as a disgrace to even imply that the muggles wound be useful much less use them. They were adamant that, the purebloods had enough magical power to easily out-throw the current administration.

**Lucius Vs. Bellatrix **

Bellatrix was bristling at her brother-in-law's suggestion "How dare you suggest that we use the vile animals. We do not need their assistance to get back what is ours. Finally you have showed to us that you are indeed a French imbecile. I should have argued harder against my sister marrying into your worthless French family." Bellatrix's words incited a big cheer among her faction of supporters. Lucius for his part didn't show any emotion even though his insides were scorching with rage.

Lucius Malfoy waited patiently for the cheering to tune down in volume, "Well Bella, I find it ironic that you would insult me as an imbecile when your own idea of storming the Ministry isn't worthy of to be called even that. Perhaps the Sorting hat misjudged you for a Slytherin as you show the characteristics' of a Gryffindor to jump in blindly to fight against superior numbers. It lacks the wily brilliance worthy of a Pureblood. My idea is that we use the muggle filth to attack the magical. It has benefits two fold, i) we do not lose any worthy blood in that interaction and ii) we also instil fear of the Muggle world and their weapons among the Magical society."

Lucius smiled victoriously for one-upping the crazy sister of his wife, as some of Bella's supporters murmured appreciatively at his plan. Bellatrix was red in the face at the defeat she suffered at the hands of the no good, slimy Albino French Bastard her sister married.

**Back to the Dilemma**

Salazar was in a dilemma. It was not the first time he faced this situation of a fight between his inbuilt cruelty & his Wily Brain. He had always wanted to make large of his life. He wanted to be immortal. Ever since he knew of magic his one aim was to find a way to be immortal. And finally when he was sixteen he found out about Horcrux, a ritual for splitting the soul and storing it a container. He found the ritual just before he found out about his origin and in his fury at his birth father who had abandoned his mother he used their deaths as a trigger for splitting his soul and storing it in his journal. The ritual was painstakingly long. He had to be confined in a warded room for a week inorder to successfully complete the ritual perfectly. As an imprudent teenager he was on this path, but a profound chat with Salazar Slytherin's Portrait in the esteemed Chamber of Secret redirected his path to immortalise his name instead. And also Salazar (Tom Riddle Jr) found out a marked difference in his behaviour after the creation of Horcrux. So the overall verdict he reached was to play the patient game and only use force as the last restraint. As he had managed to charm the most prominent families' heirs and also Horace Slughorn, not to mention the immense wealth and land he received after he killed his paternal family, he got an easy ride into the Political arena.

Now after forty years he was back at the same crossroad of indecision. On one hand he was out of patience. He had thought that by now he would have had made his impact on the British Magical History. But his contribution was only a footnote in the agricultural section for the establishment of Salazar Abode, the major producer of food grains in England. The recent humiliation at the Senate Elections, where the W.M.P lost to their rivals by a record margin of 39 – 10 left him crying out for blood. The ten provinces they won at too were very closely fought battles with only Salazar winning by more than thousand votes. To add insult to the wound, the Prophet printed an article questioning the need for an Opposition, if the public were just going to elect one party for the past twenty three years. The inner animal in him wanted to gather all his followers and burn-down as much land as they could, as payback. But he wasn't sorted into the Slytherin house for his looks or relation with the founder. Salazar knew Lucius was right, that during the last four years the bitch Bones had nearly doubled the Law Enforcement Crew and the Aurors could cut down any attack with great efficiency before they managed to do much damage. He had to proceed with great caution and be guileful in his attacks. Finally after a month of deliberation, Salazar decided that he would send the offensive faction to amass any support they could get from the mainland, while Lucius could get the green light to go ahead with his plan. Salazar felt that this would give him a victory no matter who won the skirmish. A bit of internal battle for the tittle for his second in command was healthy, he decided.

**Potter Family **

The year '88 for Potter family, unlike Salazar, was a happy year and cause for much celebration. The M.U.P had not only won for their sixth time but James Potter and Lily Potter were among the top ten of the best ministers list for their respective department. Lily Potter was named number one on the list of Best Minister for Health throughout the world while James Potter was on the ninth position for the best Deputy Minister of Magic. In fact most of the M.U.P party members were on the list the highest number being 13th for the Minister for Agriculture – Douglas Watts. While they were accumulating these accolades on the public front, their private life also provided them with happiness eclipsing all the public compliments put together; The Potter family expanded by one member. Jasmine Cameroon Potter was born on May 3rd right after the election campaign period ended. Infact the first contraction hit Lily while she was on stage. Charles predicted that her arrival was the sign of a happier time to come. And a month latter Charles prediction came true as the M.U.P won 39 seats in the senate. Lily though declined to be the Health Minister as she wanted to spend some quality time with Jasmine, Alyson and Harry, before Harry's Hogwarts seven years started. She regretted not spending more time with Blake before his Hogwarts admission. She now had a couple of months before September, and she wanted to spend all the time with the kids. Her decision was celebrated heavily by her boys more so because they would get to spend more time with Jasmine unlike with Aly. James also vowed that he would make time to spend more time with Jasmine despite him being the Deputy Minister again. His idea had more to do with his intention on not getting duped by the boys rather than he loved the newest Potter girl more than her sister. He wanted to avoid begging in front of the boys to get Jasmine to call him Papa or Dada. He wanted to strike primitively to avoid similar humiliation.

Jasmine was just like her grandmum Evans, both in her looks and her behaviour. Unlike her siblings she was quite, always observing. So much so that she opened her eyes on her day of her birth to observe her surroundings. Lily named Remus Lupin as her Godfather despite protests from the shy werewolf. Jasmine had one similarity to Aly, she loved her brothers from the moment she laid eyes on them, a fact which made James groan in pain imagining more embarrassment in his future. It was not like Alyson loved James any less than Lily but James wanted himself to be the got to guy for his daughter. Now the gods granted him another opportunity in the form of Jasmine and Lily had already declared that three was it for her in the children department, so he had to make the most of it. If he had to, he had decided he would rope in his fellow Marauders to lighten his work at the Ministry and also interfere the boys' time with little Jasmine by abducting her from their reach. It didn't help James's evil plan that Jasmine had a problem with Sirius for some reason and Whenever Sirius cradled her, the normally serene infant, screamed her heart out until someone else relieved Sirius of his burden. Not only that but she tried her hardest to cry if it appeared to the suckling that Sirius was about to cradle her. It was mortifying experience for the Marauder, who always claimed that he could charm girls of any age. The anguished Auror tried everything from observing others to reading books, which he hadn't touched since his admittance into Auror Office as it was not something 'the coolest Marauder would do'. He even asked how Blake was able to charm the new borns so easily, though his reply of "I can understand their baby talk" left him no closer to the truth of Blake's affinity to infants and vice versa. Blake even brought him books on 'Baby talk & its function in Infant development" by Billy Fischer, a renowned expert in Infant development Psychology. The book left Sirius & James bewildered and also gave Lily more ammunition for teasing them, for not being able to grasp something even a ten year could. From there on they decided to keep a close eye on James's nephew. Blake was not only a great hit with infants and Toddlers but also kids who weren't much younger than him. Luna and Hermione loved him like a brother and what was more impressive was that after Bill, Blake was Ginevra's favourite 'brother'. And it was not just the girls that liked him. Even the boys with the exception of Ronald Weasley were his 'fans' and he was their official leader. He could calm any overexcited kid and also could comfort them when they were distressed. Until he left for his first year at Hogwarts, his presence was obligatory for Little Jasmine. Any new person who wanted to take Jasmine into their arms had to be by Blake for the little girl to be calm in their arms. He was like a weird mix of Bodyguard and Playmate for the tiniest Potter. Harry was his sisters' Playmate while Blake was their protector and anyone teasing the girls in front of him, even playfully, got the severe treatment from the ten year old. This made him even more lovable for the nippers.

Finally on September first that year the inevitable happened as Blake left for Hogwarts and there was week of Morning in the house from the girls. Even Luna, Ginny and Hermione gathered at the Potter Mansion to share the ache of Blake's departure with the Potter sisters. It was not like the Boys didn't participate in this bereavement but they handled it a lot better. Only Ron celebrated Blake's disappearance, but was cautious in his display of elation. After watching the girls pine for their brother and guardian for a week James couldn't take it anymore, He went and bought the communication mirrors, sent one of them discretely to Blake arranging a surprise date for the kids with their leader. It was a costly purchase but James would have bought a pair even if it emptied the Potter accounts. So on September 8th, the kids were treated to a surprise treat. James had talked with the Weasleys, the Grangers and the Lovegoods about hosting a sleepover for their youngest. At six in the morning of that Saturday the inhabitants of the Tents in the Potter grounds were raised with the unpleasant sound of a siren. The boys and girls exited their respective tents grumbling about the noise, only to find a smiling James and Sirius. This caused more grumbling to radiate from the disgruntled group so much that they did not notice Lily and Jasmine behind them looking into something that made them happy at the ungodly hour. James and Sirius parted dramatically to reveal a happy gurgling Jasmine looking into some portrait and Lily smiling at her youngest. It was only Harry and Neville that realised the significance of the device. With a happy whoop they rushed behind the mother-daughter duo and saw Blake making funny faces at Jasmine to make her smile. Their shout of Blake snapped the girls out of their sullen stance as they too rushed behind Jasmine to see Blake. James and Sirius got up from the ground where they were deposited by the hastening girls in their flurry.

James grumbled to himself as he got and whistled to get the hoard's attention, "Alright everyone I know everyone's happy but there are some rules. You get use the Mirror only once, got it. I know you want to chat with Blakey more often but he is at school, so he will be busy. He will announce the time for the next call in the prior tête-à-tête and that is it, alright?" the children nodded still their eyes on Blake. "I think I deserve some thanks, don't you?" he asked Sirius sulking teasingly. Lily just rolled her eyes at his childish behaviour but the kids hugged him with a loud "Thank You, Uncle James/Dad." James's pouting expression brightened up as he ruffled their hair lightly in response and Kids went back to the mirror for the face to face conversation with their big brother.

**Blake, Mirror and Hogwarts tour **

On the first Saturday of his first academic year Blake was up earlier than any student at the prestigious school of Hogwarts. He generally woke as early as five a.m. every morning to start his jog as it was taught to him Cameroon and John Evans. Technically he knew that they weren't his grandparents but Blake was look a gift thestral in the mouth, so Evans were his grandparents, just like Lily Potter was his mother. The Evans had taught him more things than his Magical Grandparents about living healthy and life in general. That's why he always loved being at the Ambience rather than at the Potter Mansion. Well, the reason why he was up earlier than usual on a holiday was he had a Hogwarts tour commissioned for group of his Brothers and Sisters. Uncle James had sent a package to him late last night as he was playing Exploding Snap with his classmates in the Four House Common room; well it was more like the ones raised in the Wizarding world were helping coach their Muggleborn friends. Curious the new friend crowded Blake and package to see the gift. Most of them except a select few frowned at the Mirror and an ecstatic Blake.

**Friday Night (in)**

"Hey Blake, I know you were conceited little S.O.B but you're more happy to see this Mirror than is good for you mate. And why did your Uncle send you one, we have many mirrors in our Bathroom" Brendon Allen, a black boy with navy cut hairstyle with Gryffindor crest on his bosom, teased Blake to the amusement of his friends.

"It's not a regular mirror. It's a communication device with a pair attached to it." Linda Murphy a Ravenclaw pureblood explained to her friends as Blake was deep in concentration as he read the letter.

In the Week they were at Hogwarts, Blake had already befriended the majority of his year-mates from all four houses and also gained the reputation of being not unappealingly smart, being careful enough to not flaunt his superior knowledge but at the same time unequivocally asserting his superiority in academia. His easy-going way and his willingness to help his fellow students made him dearer to not only his peers but also the professors.

The first yearites around the Potter waited patiently as he read the letter that came along with the present which caused his smile to grow on the face with each word. Finally as a Smiling Blake turned to his new friends, Ryan Castle, a Hufflepuff newbie whose family had moved from the States as his father was a diplomat in the Magical embassy, huffed in frustration and threatened his giddy friend. "Come on Potter, what put a shit eating grin on your ugly face? And you better reduce that grin size, as it is scaring the magic out of us mortals." Blake just adjusted his smile to a more normal one before answering his good, happy mood withstanding the mocking from his friends. "Got to go boys, I have an important meeting with someone special tomorrow morning. Goodnight ladies" Blake bowed slightly to the girls and then turned around to face the boys, "and you too you bloody idiots.' With that he literally skipped back to his dorms in the dungeons.

Seeing the bewildered look on the boys' face at the unexpected departure the girls rolled their eyes at each other before Mia Westlake explained to the dim-witted gender, "You boys honestly! Don't you listen to anything other than sports related topics? He is happy that he will have a face to face conversation with his family." With that she straightened her skirt as she got up, "Well I am drowsy, goodnight." Ten minutes after that the assembly of the thirty first yearites dispersed to their respective dormitories.

-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-x-o-

Blake completed his usual regime by five thirty and was sitting by the lake impatiently waiting for the call. He knew that Jasmine woke up everyday at five. He was missing the crew at the Potter Mansion despite the fact that he managed to befriend his year mates. He especially missed Aly, Jasmine and Luna. He had always felt like they were his responsibility to protect and entertain. And finally at quarter to six, Blake frantically answered the mirror as it sung out his favourite Christmas Carol of 'Oh Christmas Tree'. He let out a loud yip of happy cheer as he saw his little sister happily playing with a string ball in her tiny arms.

The cheer alerted the little girl to a sound she missed for a week. As she peeked into the mirror in her search for his bodyguard she let out a happy gurgle, reaching her tiny arms towards her brother. After a hasty greeting to 'Lily-mum' Blake returned his attention to Jasz making faces and cooing unintelligibly at the four month old making her smile at her silly brother. After about a quarter of hour Blake heard a loud whoop from what he recognised as Harry and Neville's voices. A second later his assumption was proved right as the smiling duo stood on either side of Lily-mum. A moment later the girls too rushed behind the sitting pair of mother and daughter. They all had wide unblinking eyes matched by their eclectic smiles. Blake heard someone grumble on the other side and the gang behind Lily-mum rushed off the screen, only to hear them expressing gratitude to his Uncle James. Blake smiled as his Lily-mum rolling eyes at her husband. After the allotted Fifteen minutes with Jasmine and Lily-mum, Harry and gang took over the mirror. As per his suggestion Harry placed it in the movie room and with Uncle James's help attached it to the Projector. Subsequently the gang took their places around the screen for him to give to give them the grand tour of the school they were to attend in about three/four years. Blake started with the tour of the grounds in a style reminding the viewers of the advertisement announcers on the television.

"On my left is the Black Lake which predates the Great castle of Hogwarts that was built around it. This Black lake is so large that it leads close to the Hogsmeade railway station and….." his monotonous description of the grounds was interrupted by exasperated cries of 'Blake' from his audience. He smiled coyly at them before their pleading looks got too much for him. "All right, all right, I will be nice. So the Black lake leads up to the Hogsmeade train station gate and it is through this that the first years, that is 'me' arrive every year while the rest of the seniors are brought by carriages." He walked a little further covering the mirror with his body despite cries of unfair from the gang. Slowly he tilted the mirror, "Hermione, Luna and all the non Quidditch lovers you would want to close your ears, cause this is the legendary Quidditch pitch of Hogwarts where the Great Slytherin team are going to thrash the rest of the houses for the cup." With that he turned the mirror towards the pitch and the stands. Though the pitch at the Mansion was big, the Hogwarts one dwarfed it by a huge margin. He then went on to describe in detail the sections of the stands that were allotted to each of the houses and the commentary box positioned above the stands by about ten feet. After reaching the commentary box he faced the mirror along the length of the field and it drew wows from the Quidditch fans.

"Now to the most fascinating part of the tour", with that announcement he turned around to face the great Castle, and though it was not as grand as the vision he experienced on the first night, he felt that it was pretty spectacular. His opinion was shared by his audience as they were looking at the screen with slightly open mouths. Just as Blake was exiting the Quidditch field he came into Bill and Charlie Weasley's view, who were out in grounds searching for him, apparently, as they made their way towards the pitch once they spotted him.

"You're a sneaky little bugger Blake but what else should I expect from a Slytherin." Bill accused, though his smile took away any insult the accusation carried.

Blake was unaffected, "Why thank you Mr HeadBoy, that's quite a compliment you gave me." Bill and Blake laughed at their weird little joke as Charlie rolled his eyes at the duo.

"That's the lamest funny thing you guys could have ever come up with." He shook his head as the pair swelled as if they were proud of being lame, "Anyhow what did you show our esteemed audience till now?"

Shouts of Quidditch pitch and Grounds came from the aforementioned esteemed audiences. Bill and Charlie nodded their heads in satisfaction as they didn't miss anything more.

For the rest of the morning the trio showed the gang everything in the Castle from Filch's Office to that of Potion Master Snape's and from Astronomy tower to the Library. The viewers enjoyed every minute of the show telecasted by the trio. Each one of the gang had a different favourite part of the Castle.

Ginny, Luna, Jane and Alyson loved the Great Hall and enchanted celling that showed the outside sky the most, though they thought Bill's HeadBoy room and the Prefects bath was cool too.

Harry and Ron, the Quidditch fanatics loved the Pitch, but also appreciated the view from the astronomy tower. Ron's love for food was once again teased by his brothers who showed them the kitchens and had their 'Mouth-watering' breakfast which oddly enough contained all of Ron's favourite foods much to his friend's amusement. James and Lily who were watching all this from the doorway were also treated with an interesting titbit of information when Blake mentioned 'And now I am about show something that Uncle James showed me'. James, who was playing with little Jasmine, ran from his wife, as she turned her severe face towards him for corrupting Blake with information too juicy that a eleven year old couldn't ignore, much to the amusement of kids.

Hermione, ever the student, loved the classes but what took the snitch was the Library. The view of tens of thousands of books were in her words 'Heavenly' which caused Ron to roll her eyes at the Bookworm.

Neville loved the Greenhouses. Though his mum had an even bigger one, he was never allowed in the extensive green house as they contained more dangerous plants, but now seeing all the plants it was Neville who decided first what he would become when he grew up – A Herbologist like his Mum.

**Hermione Vs Ron – Harry's Dilemma**

Harry and Neville, friends from when they were in nappies, sharing adjacent beds in St Mungo's, were by nature very docile and friendly kids. Despite their fathers' best efforts they generally avoided trouble and were no more troublesome than kids their age were. And factor in that their Hero, Leader and Role model, Blake Potter loved the girls, often playing the role of a Loving and Caring brother. So Harry and Neville were nice to the girls their age replicating Blake and they became more caring since the birth of Alyson and Jane. The third member of the Trio, one Ron Weasley didn't share this belief. It was not like he hated the girls, but he didn't like them. He did have his reasons for it however incongruous they were. His parents, Molly and Arthur Weasley loved Ginerva, their youngest child and only daughter, more than their sons. And Ron Weasley who was the youngest till his sister's birth didn't appreciate her usurping his position as 'the apple of their eyes'. The other Weasley sons understood this as they had experienced it before, having lost this position with the birth of a new sibling. But Ron didn't have the experience and he didn't understand it when Bill explained it to him after one of his fights with Ginny. He, Ron, just assumed that Bill was trying to defend his little 'BABY Sister'. It's not like he didn't care for Ginny but he certainly didn't like sharing anything with her. This behaviour of his, spilled onto other girls her age, like Luna. So when one Hermione 'I Know It All' Granger was introduced into their circle he found it insalubrious. Ginny, his sister, no matter how irritating, didn't butt into his friendship with Harry and Neville but this Granger girl not only dropped in but also took the occasional lead of the group and his friends were Ok with it. What was more irksome was that she was smart too, not like Harry or Neville but scary smart like Blake. Though Hermione induction happened nearly three years ago he didn't warm up to her but he always kept it civil with her as he was afraid of Blake. He still remembered the friendly and cheerful Blake laying into him something fierce when he was five.

**Flash Back 1985 – Before Hermione's time**

The trio were locked in the muggle room all morning in front of the newly acquired computer. The Computer now housed the thrilling game of 'Mystery House' and the triad were trying to ascertain the killer's identity. They weren't having any luck though as the Hero was now dead ten times that morning. It was Charles and Dorea's day for minding the kids. Lily and James were at the Ministry and Blake was at the School. Luna and Ginny were by the pond with Dorea flying their training brooms. After about two hours of this the girls got bored and went in to see if the trinity were also fed up with that 'boring game' only to find them pasted to the computer screen, with Neville and Ron shouting advices to a nervous Harry. Their interest spiked the girls watched it for a few moments but couldn't make head or tails of the game. So they asked if the boys were willing to play 'tag' with them on their brooms.

"Not now Luna, it's very interesting" Harry said without even looking away from the screen. Neville who saw the disappointed looks on their faces tried to placate them, "Maybe in an hour, alright?" Seeing the girls smile slightly he turned back to the screen.

After an hour when the girls visited the boys again, it was Ron's turn to play. So when Harry and Neville, tired from their unsuccessful attempts of solving the crime, agreed to play Tag with the girls, Ron wasn't pleased.

"You just insufferable. Why did you have to come and disturb us? Can't you just play outside and leave us be? It was my turn to play the game."

Ginny who was accustomed to Ron's rants argued back, "Why do you have to be such a prat. I know you have played it before and Neville did tell us that he would play with us after an hour. So why don't you stop being a baby about it and grow up."

Luna though was hurt by Ron's words and ran out of the room sniffling. Even Harry and Neville admonished their friend for shouting at the girls for no fault of theirs. He accompanied them sullenly but it was not the end of the issue. When Blake returned from the School that afternoon Ginny informed him about the incident.

Blake calmly reprimanded Ron not to repeat this behaviour, but when Ron mulishly replied that they deserved it, Blake tore into the stubborn five year old in such a manner that scared the living daylights of the redheaded boy. Blake, till then, was viewed by Ron as mild mannered older boy but that incident left Ron scared of Blake.

Though the incident happened three years ago it kept Ron in check everytime he wanted to scold the girls, as he knew Blake would find out. And Hermione was surely someone who tattled, all girls did, he knew it by experience. So Ron tolerated the bushyheaded Know it all even though she caused him much grief. What shocked the youngest Weasley son most was that both Neville and Harry liked her. Before Hermione his friends rarely spent their time with books but now they had a regular study hour. His mum when she knew about it wanted him to join as well. Ron blamed this on Hermione and to add to that she hated fooling around in the beginning. This caused a bit of friction between the boys and her, but after an hour's chat with Blake one evening, she was much more relaxing and soon became a permanent member of the group.

Now that Blake was at Hogwarts, Ron was much more forthcoming in his disapproval of her ways. In the one month that Blake left Hermione and he had ten rows. Molly, Maria and Emma all tried to talk to them about their problems. Molly had already dressed down her stubborn son a couple of time not including the punishments, but the altercations continued. Finally on October 3rd it reached its peak when Hermione told Molly Weasley about the flour that was spilt as Ron was trying to sneak some cookies from Jar adjacent to the one that contained Flour. As a punishment Molly had her son de-gnome the entire garden in addition to cleaning out his and Ginny's room. And to add oil to an Expulso Charm, Ginny lorded over him as he reorganised her room. Humiliated beyond anything he ever had Ron decided to have it out with the nosey busybody Granger the next time he met with her for ratting him out.

So next Sunday when the group met again at the Potter Mansion, he waited till Dorea and Charles stepped outside the Muggle room to berate the remorseful Brown haired girl. Hermione who knew this was coming took it well in the beginning but after a couple of minutes of name calling she started to cry.

Harry and Neville at first didn't know what to do as they too thought that Hermione shouldn't have snitched on Ron, no matter how justified it was. But after Ron showed no mercy on the downtrodden girl that had started to cry Harry tried to interfere. Neville ran to call Dorea and bring her before Ron got any worse. Harry from the beginning of the Ron-Hermione rows was divided between his friends, he had a Dilemma. On one hand there was Ron, whom he knew for years and with whom he had shared great many hours of fun and adventure. On the other hand there was Hermione who was a bit bossy but had always meant well and who was generally right and who from what Harry could tell was a Loyal friend. For the past few days now Harry was slowly turning away from Ron towards his new friend as it seemed to the eight year old that Ron was picking fights with her.

Harry was drawn from his thoughts when Ron delivered the sucker punch, "Why are you even here. We were so cool before you came and you ruined everything. We all hate you and I understand why nobody ever wanted to be your friends before. We only bore with you because Blake ordered us to." Harry opened his mouth to rebuff this and scold Ron, when Hermione let out heart wrenching cry. It all happened in the blink of an eye for Harry, who had turned to shoot a glare at Ron. Harry felt the huge amount of magic radiating from Hermione so he turned around to see the magic blast every object close by towards Ron. Harry's Magic reacted even faster as it created a shield around Ron and He protecting them from the objects, as a frightened Ron watched.

Dorea Potter was on the floo network talking to Augusta about the kids and she was busy in reminiscence of James and Frank's level of causing trouble and how their grandson were angels compared to the previous generation that she didn't hear the argument. Only when Neville ran up to her shouting about another row between Ron and Hermione did she hear a mild voice heaping insults. Sighing about the stubborn Weasley son Dorea followed a slightly frightened Neville, which she took as evidence that the argument wasn't exactly one. She was just in time to witness the accidental magic from both eight year old. Dorea was stunned. Not because of the accidental magic of course but the magnitude of the damage in the room. Even factoring in the distress and hurt Hermione felt the magic, accidental or not was too huge for average eight year old and Harry's response too was unnaturally fast and powerful. She knew then and there that these two eight year old would be among the most powerful Witch and Wizard of their age. But now she had to console a little girl who was in shock and pain everything else had to wait.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 – Of Train Rides and Bets**

**Platform 9 & ¾, London Central**

Harry Potter was waiting. He had been waiting for about half an hour in front of the Hogwarts Express with his parents and Grandparents. He was waiting for his friends to show up so that they can travel together as planned. Beside him James was complaining to his mother about his father and wife.

"They do this everytime. If we have to be at someplace at some time they arrive at it hours before. When I was a student here I was the first on this idiotic platform. Granted it allowed me to spend so alone time with My Lily but come two hours earlier, it ridiculous and that too when we could have flooed here at ten thirty."

Dorea Potter smiled at her son's whining. It was not the first time they were early and it was not the first time James complained. Frankly she too that it was little extreme but she had learned to live with Charles' punctuality, only now he had a partner. She looked at Charles and Lily trying to entertain young Harry. It worked well for about twenty minutes as Harry soaked in the tales of his mother's and grandfather's tales of 'Hogwarts Adventures' but after Blake left to wait on the other side for Hermione's parents he steadily lost interest in their tales.

Just as Harry was about to ask the ever frequent, 'When will they come?', the first of the student started to arrive through the magical warded partitioned wall separating the mundane & magical worlds. And it was five minutes ago, nearly an hour after they arrived.

Harry was the first to spot the flames of the nearby floo go green. The fireplace had restricted access on the platform and only Ministry personal had the authority to use it, so Harry thought it might be someone he knew, possibly Neville or Susan & Hannah.

Harry deduction turned out to be true; it was the Longbottoms along with the Bones and Hannah Abbott. Excited to not be alone among his peers Harry rushed to greet his friends. All of them were already in their School robes. The three first yearites spotted the fourth's dash towards them and responded in kind. They collided to form a group hug and once separated threw some hast greeting to the other adults before assembling in the side chatting animatedly, a shine in their eyes.

Amelia Bones rolled her eyes at her niece and her friends' zeal as she joined the Potters along with the Longbottoms. Alice and Lily hugged as they got little teary at the fact that their little babies were already ready for school. James greeted Frank with slap on the back to which his friend replied with a huge Yawn. He looked more a corpse than alive. Augusta joined the other grandparents.

"Did Harry wake up in the middle of the night and refused to go to sl…ee..eeep too?" Frank asked the Potters stifling another yawn, "Neville was up at 2 in the morning." He continued without waiting.

"It was not two Frank, it was just around four thirty." Alice corrected exasperatedly, "You're such a baby you know that. And I distinctly remember the 'Marauders' running along all night in the grounds."

Frank didn't even bother to retaliate as he was half asleep with his head dropping on to his friends shoulder.

Amelia smiled at the two younger women. They always complained about their husbands but it was clear to everyone that they loved them whole heartedly more than some who never fought with their husbands.

"Susan was up early too. I have to say not that early, for which I am grateful as I have huge pile of papers waiting for me at the Office. Well back to my niece, she and Hannah were dressed up in their robes at seven and I don't think they got any sleep."

Everybody nodded with smiles. It was well documented fact among the wizarding United Kingdom that the eleven year olds who were about to attend Hogwarts never slept well on the last day of August.

"The novelty will die after this year. Then we have to drag them from their beds to get them ready in time." Augusta commented wryly as she and the Potter grandparents laughed looking at their sons.

Amelia laughed at the Marauder pair, "Well that's true in most cases. I too hated the last week of August after my second year but Blake, that boy is as thrilled at the idea of going to Hogwarts as he was four years ago if not more. By the way where is he?"

James answered his fellow minister, "He is outside on the muggle side waiting for the Grangers so he can bring them with him and about that 'thrill' of his he get it from his 'Lily-MUM', they are weird like that."

The wiseacre comment of James got him a slap on his arm from his 'loving wife'. "He is not weird young idiot. He wants to learn and he is excited about it."

"And I rest my case." James shrugged as if his wife's statement proved his statement. Lily just huffed, annoyed at her husband. Everyone around smiled at the familiarity of the duel between the younger Potters.

Amelia decided to divert the topic, though judging from the Lily's frown she didn't manage it all too well. "Where are your other too buddies James, Sirius and Remus?" Amelia was confused at Lily's frown, now matched by Alice.

"James you four didn't give them your map did you or your invisibility cloak?" Alice asked frown at her friend's husband as her own was still sleeping with head on James's shoulder.

James stood in attention as if ready for a marching order to be given, his expression turned sober, "I swear on the honour of the Great Marauders gang that we didn't give them anything and that include advices."

Alice didn't look convinced and Lily just snorted, "Yeah well the Marauders didn't have any."

Frank who was jostled by James's sudden movement heard enough, "Hey we have Honour. We were the pioneers of Mischief making. So, we have HONOUR." James simply looked at his wife, too shocked to speak.

"Well kiddo that doesn't necessarily comfort anyone." Augusta answered patting her drowsy son in the back consolingly which caused the rest of the adults to laugh at the pained expression on the faces of the two young men.

Just as James was about to retaliate he was distracted by Harry's shout.

Harry who was facing the magical partition spotted the bushy brow hair followed by Susan who was beside him. "Hermione" with that shout the gang followed Harry's lead as they raced towards the girl who was in the process of throwing her school robes over her casual dress.

Hermione arrived ahead of Blake who was bring her parents and after staring in awe at the brilliant sight of the Hogwarts express, she fished the Robes from her backpack to put them on when the shout alerted her midway. She turned around only in time to spot the blurred smiling face before the body that the face was attached to hit her in a hug.

"We missed you Hermione." Neville spoke to the beaming girl with a smile of his own on his face.

The Grangers, after buying the required things along with the Potters and others, went on a fifteen day trip to France as Dan & Emma wanted to squeeze in some special time with their daughter before she left for Hogwarts.

Hermione greeted her friends excitedly. Though she loved the trip of France she took with her Parents she also missed her friends. To the once lonely girl having friends was like Heaven On Earth and she didn't like to spend any time away from them. Since the incident with Ron and Harry, after which Harry apologised for not standing up for her along with Neville, their friendship became even stronger. Even Ron who was just cordial before became much warmer after he apologised. In the next three the trio became a quadrate and then expanded even more as the other girls started hanging out with them. As she was greeting the adults already on the Platform Blake appeared from the solid looking wall with her parents whose grip on Blake's shoulders was too firm if his pained expression was an indication. To add to that her parents had their eyes tightly set and her father appeared to saying some kind of prayer. Once Blake gave them the clear her mother opened one eye to confirm his claim while her 'Manly and Brave' father still had his eyes shut.

Hermione couldn't hear it but she could see that her mother cracked a joke on her father as she Blake laughed at him. Finally after a couple of moments her father opened his eyes, relief plainly visible on his face. With that Blake was free to join his friends, as in the meantime the Davies' and Jordan's had also flooed through to the platform. Just in a matter of few minutes the platform seemed to fill in front of her eyes, as other families entered, some through floo network some apparating and the rest through the wall. She searched for any Redheads among the newcomers at the same time keeping an ear on the conversation, anxious as it was no just fifteen minutes to eleven, the departure time for the School Express.

"Don't worry", Blake's voice turned her attention away from the entrance, "The Weasleys will make it. They mostly arrive five minutes before the train leaves." His calm voice and serene smile tuned down her anxiety a little, but she kept vigil on the charmed entrance and Fireplace. The sound of her parent's laughter along with the others distracted her again. She, along with the others kids, turned her head towards them to see the adults glance at them.

'How rude! They are making some joke on us when we are standing right next to them.' She thought bristly.

Adults sometimes, it appeared to the brown eyed girl, forgot manners and turned hypocrites ignoring the rules they laid down for the children.

"Alright kids", James called out loudly, "time to enter the train and settle into the compartments."

"Don't forget to save some space for the Weasleys they might be here any minute", Lily announced and just on her cue the loud voice of Molly berating Fred and George reached the group followed by theirs. One by one the Weasleys were spat out of the fireplace.

Hurriedly, and with assistance from James and Frank the Weasley got into the train with their trunks and cages. The kids settled in the two adjacent compartments and flocked to the windows. The parents, some teary-eyed, some sedate said their byes running along as the train moved. The adults stood on the platform waving at the kids until they were just specks. A loud sob turned their attention from the train towards Dan Granger. Dan was crying openly as Emma tried to soothe him. Seeing him cry set off Alyson and Jasmine. The next few minutes were spent by the group consoling the father and the young girls.

**In The Train**

The first yearites took hold of one compartment while the rest took the other. Harry and Hermione led the eleven year olds into the first compartment dragging their trunks.

"Just a minute Crookshanks. I'll let you out once I settled down." Hermione's pleading with her cat made everyone smile. It was running joke that the girl who like to boss them around somewhat was bossed around by her cat. The half-Kneazle knew that Hermione would never scold him until it was very apparent, so controlled the bushy haired girl at every corner. Hermione who loved to sleep in on holidays had to wake up early to feed his royal highness everyday irrespective of the concept of sleep in on a Holiday. In the Granger house too, Crookshanks was respectful of only Emma. Dan and his daughter were roll overs as far as he was concerned.

Within a few minutes the Weasleys were there and they saw James and Frank help the hasty Weasleys get in to the train. When the train blew its first whistle indicating departure all of them gather around the large horizontal window beside Harry and Hermione, saying last minute adieus.

As they lost sight of the magical platform they took their places Harry and Hermione sat opposite each other and beside the window. Tracey Davies sat beside Hermione as Ron took the adjacent spot to Harry. Susan and Hannah sat on the same side as Hermione whereas Neville and Michelle the resident Herbology enthusiasts completed Harry's row.

"So Hermione", Tracey started the conversation, "Tell us about your France trip. What did you see this time?"

"I can't believe you went on a tour in France. Didn't you go there like some ten times or something?" Hannah added her two knuts, "Are there anything new to see left that country for you to see?"

Hermione huffed annoyingly at the teasing from the usually shy girl with blonde pigtails.

"It's not ten times. We toured France only four times and for your information there is even more to see but I have be older before we go again."

"Again?" Neville asked exasperatedly, "What more is there in the country?" Harry smiled comfortingly at his best friend as she stared disparagingly at his other best friend. Hermione saw Harry's smile as she shook her head at what the French called fainéants. She returned his smile feeling instantly calm. Hermione didn't know how, but everytime she was tense one look at either Potter boys, Harry and Blake, calmed her much better than anything else.

Seeing her calm Harry asked Hermione about the trip. "So Hermione, where did you go this time around?"

The excitement she felt last night at the thought of going to Hogwarts returned back as she recalled the amazing sights they saw on their tour.

"Yes it was sooo exciting. We visited Nice (Nis) this time. And it is an awesome sight. The buildings are beautiful. All of us should go there after Hogwarts. We can hike for a trip around Europe and then around the world for a year or so."

For the next Half an hour the occupants of the compartment listened patiently as Hermione described the amazing sights around the Oldest City in France. Some like Neville and Michelle who loved such things listened interestingly while other such as Ron and Susan were bored and entertained themselves by rolling their eyes at the trio of Architecture lovers. Harry didn't really care about such things but the bright expression on Hermione's face, he felt, was enough incentive to listen unwearyingly.

Finally, as Ron and Susan were about to shout their disapproval and start mutiny in the compartment the door slid open to reveal the twins along with their friends Roger Davies and Lee Jordon. They were carrying a pouch each on their belts and a large roll of parchment. Lee carried a ink bottle in his hand while Fred had a quill in his. The first years stared at them in confusion at this unnaturally academic look on the four trouble makers.

The four paused, looking at each other, dramatically before announced with the air of some who conducted auctions.

"Folks we are here to collect any new bets on this year's Super Six stage of the Quidditch Tournaments."

Right on cue the others in the adjacent compartment made their way into their partition. Tonks, the seventh yearites, lead the group followed by Blake.

"About time you idiots returned. Both of us were waiting for you for half an hour" Tonks grumbled at the Quadrate.

"Sorry Dora had to see our peers as we are holding bets with them too, separately of course." Roger apologised the testy senior.

"So on with it. What are the verdicts on the group stage bets?" Blake prodded them forward, smiling coyly, as they were checking their list.

"Oh shut Blake. We know you won your stupid bet. One of these days I am going to find out how you do it. And even Aunt Lily won't be able to help you if I find out you have seer like abilities." Blake replied smiling charmingly at his cousin. It was a well-documented fact that Blake's bets were seldom wrong and Fred and George were the first to observe this. So when they began running the operation they took Blake's bet secretly so that others can't follow in his footsteps.

"So this year's group stage rankings are" Fred pulled out a board with the table on it.

Pos

Group A

Score

Group B

Score

1

Falmouth Falcons

1230

Puddlemere United

1690

2

Appleby Arrows

1180

Holyhead Harpies

1330

3

Wimbourne Wasps

1060

Tutshill Tornados

1320

4

Pride of Portree

1050

Montrose Magpies

1100

5

Kenmore Kestrals

1010

Ballycastle Bats

980

6

Wigtown Wanderers

640

Caerphilly Catapults

760

7

Chudley Cannons

310

In 1985 the Quidditch tournament went through some changes to attract more people to the stadiums. The thirteen teams of the United Kingdom were dived into two groups and the best three in each group headed to a super six competition. The advance teams took with them the score from their matches with the other two teams and only played with the three teams from the other groups. In addition to this, which decreased the yearlong event into seasons of six months, the department of sports adjusted the unlimited time on the matches to a more audience appropriate three hours each. The Quidditch purists cried foul at what they considered as tampering with an already perfect game. But the result was an outstanding success. The stadiums for the matches filled to the brim for every match and the viewership increased by nearly five hundred percent. Slowly, over the span of six years, the other nations in the European Union also adopted this style and soon a European championship started among the private clubs.

Pos

Group A

Score

Pos

Group B

Score

1

Falmouth Falcons

430

1

Puddlemere United

490

2

Wimbourne Wasps

410

2

Holyhead Harpies

440

3

Appleby Arrows

370

3

Tutshill Tornadoes

440

**Super Six Stage for the Quidditch Tourney United kingdom, 1991-92**

Everyone read the tables on Fred's board. Blake groaned painfully.

"Bloody great it is. The order got screwed up for me." Ron, Susan and Hannah all glared at Blake. Here they were crying over the fact that their teams didn't make it to the super six stages and Blake was crying over some flaw in his prediction of the table.

Dora spoke for the trio, "Shut your wise face Blake. Boo Hoo, You were wrong about the order of the table, big deal. We got bigger things to worry about." She was worried as her team the Arrows were last in the standings in the super sixes. "She turned her head to observe the others in the compartment. Hermione was steadily ignoring the scene and had her face buried in Transfiguration Text Book. Susan and Hannah were adorning sad expression. Their team the Kestrals, the previous year semi-finalists didn't even make it to the next round this time. Ron was acting as if he didn't care but she knew he was hurting inside though she didn't feel any sympathy for the Cannons fan. It wasn't exactly a surprise that they tabled last in their group. It was fast becoming a tradition with the critically rechristened 'Lovable Losers'. Harry and Neville had gloating looks. It looked like it was going to be another year of the United, the past three year Champions. Michelle was wearing a content smile as her team of Holyhead Harpies were at joint second position with the Tornadoes, Roger Lee and Blake's favourite team. With that her attention turned towards the older Potter boy. The object of her attention was in serious contemplation, 'Probably calculating the probabilities for each team to advance in to the Semi-Finals. Blake usually bet on everything but it stopped at the Semi-final candidates. After which he refused to bet large, 'Anyone can win from there' was his constant answer. Shaking her head at the boy as his face turned grim at the conclusion he reached, she turned her head at the Bet Handlers.

"So what's the final count?" she asked.

The Twins nodded in agreement and George started the count,

"We will start with the official winners, Harry and Neville along with us win 7 Galleons for the prediction of the United as the toppers."

Harry and Neville stood up and waved as if acknowledging a huge crowd before bowing to the same imaginary crowd.

"Shut out you idiots", Ron shouted at his two friends as he shoved them down. Hermione smiled behind her book at her friend's dramatics and rest of them smiled at the trio.

"Hey it's not our fault you chose to follow the 'Lovable Losers'" Neville's comment turned Ron red as a tomato as the other laughed out loud at the Cannon's nickname.

"So moving on", George butted in, "next we have our grumpy seventh year Hufflepuff for 9 galleons on Appleby Arrows; though it doesn't look good for your team, with them stranded at the bottom of the table in the Super Six's." Dora just fingered the twins much to their amusement and Hermione's gasp of surprise at the girl's vulgar action.

Still chuckling George continued, "Love you too 'Dora. Now Uncle James and Remus won 6 galleons and 6 Sickles. They placed it along with 3 galleons and 11 sickles, bringing their whole bet of Ten galleons (the upper limit) on the Wasps making the semis. It the same with Uncle Sirius and Frank, they won a total 7 galleons with their bet for super sixes but added additional dough to make it ten Galleons for the Arrows to make it to the Semis. So 'Dora what should we do with yours?" The twins turned at the pink haired Metamorphmagus.

'Dora adroitly looked at Blake who was besides George looking at the board. Though he didn't look at her, he shook his head minutely. She got her message, 'It was safer to take her money off the table and as she didn't like any other teams as much she decided to pocket her winnings and put it to better use.

"Hard luck boys, I'll quit when I am ahead." George nodded his head and noted in front of her name 'To be paid and out'.

"Well that leaves….ha Michelle, Luna and Ginny. Little Gin-Gin and Lulu are becoming pros in this betting business"

"Atleast better than our Ron over here" Fred cut of his brother to tease the Cannon fan. Ron too followed 'Dora by flipping him the finger that resulted in Hermione boxing his ears. She might not said anything to 'Dora as she was older than her but Ron was a complete other thing. The twins laughed so hard at their brother plight they fell on Roger and Lee, who too were laughing, though mildly.

"Hah ah ha ha, good one Hermione. Atleast there is someone to keep an eye on little Ronnikins at the Castle. So where was I…Oh yes Ginny and Luna, well they bet their winnings, a total of 13 galleons and 16 Sickles and 4 Knuts on Harpies reaching the semis. Confidant duo they are, though if they take home an amazing sum of 23 Galleons and change. So Michelle what would you like to do? You won 4 galleons and 9 Sickles. DO you want to join Ginny and Luna?"

Michelle nodded her approval. It wasn't a secret, well atleast not to her, that Blake was the brains behind the duo's betting patterns. They had told her about it as the three of them shared common favourite team.

"Alright", Fred continued, "And Mum and Bill bet their winnings on the Falcons to reach the finals, and so did Lee over here. Dan and Ron lost their bets. SO did Hannah and Susan, sorry girls, that was unexpected, along with Charlie whose Portree also got their stuffings' knocked off. I was sure the two teams would atleast make it to the Super Sixes."

The twins sympathetically nodded at the girls and they responded with thanking smiles. It was infact the upset of the season. The Kestrels and Pride of Portree were favorites of the group and both the teams were left behind.

"Grandpa Charles too bit the dust with his choice of the Magpies; they stunningly enough made it to the fourth position in their group. So all that's left is Blake's Predictions; Are you folks ready for this?" Everybody looked at them with looks of concentration, even Hermione. Blake smiled embarrassingly at this unwanted attention and idiotic ritual.

Ever since the twins found out about Blake's talent for very close to the truth predictions, they began the tradition of disclosing his bets at the super six stages.

"SO here it, the order of the groups is

Group A – i) Falcons, ii) The Wasps and iii) the Arrows and thought his is the order in the Super six stage, his bet was in the group stage so he wins bets for the first position and predicting the top three and lose points for the order."

'Dora turned her astonished face at the fourth year Slytherin, "How in hell did you know the Wasps and the Arrows would make it? The Kestrels and Portree were in top form and they beat nearly everyone in the warm ups."

Blake just shrugged; "Trade Secret" was his only response. "Dora huffed in annoyance.

"And for group two he nailed it head on. He bet i) United, ii) Harpies and iii) The Tornadoes. I got to hand it to the man. He chose his team would be the third favourite in the group, that's harsh and professional. So his total winnings are 3 galleons for Group A and 7 galleons and 8 Sickles for the B group. And on the Tornadoes making the super sixes he win another 7 Galleons. That's quite a collection. "

Fred completed his twin's announcement, "And now Blake and we have to go to some place secret so that he can make his bet on the teams for the semis."

The twins nodded at the remaining duo of their gang and dragged the fourth year Potter by his hand calling, 'See you at the sorting Midgets."

This was met with a response of everyone in the compartment flipping off their middle finger at the offending duo much to Hermione's exasperation.


End file.
